WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in cases that could make same-sex marriage the law of the land.
The justices are meeting Tuesday to offer the first public indication of where they stand in the dispute over whether states can continue defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, or whether the Constitution gives gay couples the right to marry.
The court is hearing extended arguments, scheduled to last 2½ hours, which also will explore whether states that do not permit same-sex marriage must nonetheless recognize such unions from elsewhere. Same-sex couples can marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia.
The cases before the court come from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, four of the 14 remaining states that allow only heterosexual marriage. Those four states had marriage bans upheld by the federal appeals court in Cincinnati in November. That is the only federal appeals court that has ruled in favor of the states since the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down part of the federal anti-gay marriage law.
