Will the United States Supreme Court legalize same-sex marriage? : Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor

摘要

This spring the US Supreme Court will make its decision in two well-known cases:ududHollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor. In both the Court must ududresolve the nationwide dispute over the constitutionality of federal and state ududlaws which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The Ninth ududand the Second Circuits found (in Perry and Windsor respectively) that such laws ududviolate both Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution. The ududaim of this paper is to analyze the former Supreme Court’s decisions in this field in ududorder to propose the most probable rationale of the expected judgements. Taking ududinto account the Supreme Court’s milestone rulings in Griswold v. Connecticut ududfrom 1965, Loving v. Virginia from 1967, Romer v. Evans from 1996 and Lawrence ududand Garner v. Texas from 2003, it seems fairly possible that the Court will uphold ududthe constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Most likely, it will be done on the ududground of the Second Circuit decision in Windsor which is the best opportunity ududto gather the sufficient five-member majority round this solution.