Supreme Court poised to render decision on marriage equality that will determine the future of same sex marriage.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

The U.S. Supreme Court's arguments on Tuesday over same-sex marriage will cap more than two decades of litigation and a transformation in public attitudes. 

Based on the court's actions during the past two years, a sense of inevitability is in the air: That a majority is on the verge of declaring gay marriage legal nationwide. 

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's pivotal member on gay rights, has been marching in this direction with opinions dating to 1996. In his most recent gay rights decision for the court in 2013, rejecting a legal definition of marriage limited to a man and woman for purposes of federal benefits, Kennedy deplored that U.S. law for making gay marriages "unequal." 

That 5-4 decision did not address a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, but lower court judges interpreted the ruling as an endorsement of it and began invalidating state bans.

I have heard that a lot of conservative politicians really want the Supreme Court to rule in favor of same sex marriage, so that they will have an excuse not to address it during campaigns.  Essentially it will let them off the hook.

However this possibility has enraged many on the religious right:

Angered by the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage nationwide, busloads of protestors from religious and conservative groups gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday to inveigh against defining marriage as anything except a union between one man and one woman. 

On the weekend before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a case from Ohio that could extend marital rights to gay people, the protestors argued the Justices should heed the word of religions that regard the only appropriate marriages as between a man and a woman, as well as voters such as those in Ohio, who made that marital definition their state law. 

"The people of every state should remain free to uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman," Josh Duggar, a reality television star who serves as executive director of the Family Research Council, told the crowd. "The court has the opportunity to affirm what these states and many others did in affirming marriage in their state constitutions."

Yep leave it to the Duggars to be on the wrong side of history. 

I hate to make a prediction here, but if I had to I also think the Justices are going to rule on the side of marriage equality. As well they should.

And once they do these troglodytes arguing that their religious definition for marriage stand will find themselves filed away by history along with those who argued in favor of slavery and against a woman's right to vote.