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In addition to the return of Obamacare in King v. Burwell, the other highly-anticipated case this spring was on the issue of same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges. See below for some of the many takes on the case, which the Court heard on Tuesday:
- Live Science laid out the key facts in the case, including explanations of the arguments on both sides of the issue.
- An LA Times feature on “the road to gay marriage” offered timelines, stories, and pre- and post-argument analyses.
- In The New York Times, Adam Liptak reported that the Court was deeply divided over the issue, although Justice Kennedy appeared to lean slightly toward the side of gay rights advocates. Liptak also noted that Chief Justice Roberts could cast his vote for same-sex marriage by viewing the issue through the lens of gender bias.
- The NY Times prepared an interactive graphic on the case featuring excerpts from the oral arguments.
- At SCOTUSblog, Amy Howe explained the arguments in “plain English,” while Mark Walsh offered a “view from the Courtroom.”
- In the Detroit Free Press, legal experts predicted how the Court will rule in the case.
- By counting questions asked during oral arguments, ISCOTUS author Ed Lee predicted a narrow win for same-sex marriage.
- ISCOTUS director Chris Schmidt summarized the basic take-away from oral arguments—that recognizing same-sex marriage as a constitutional right appears to be a lot less certain inside the Court than it does outside the Court.
Do pretrial inmates have the same constitutional rights as people on the outside? Slate considers Monday’s Kingsley v. Hendrickson case.
Director Chris Schmidt took a look at another big case this week in which the Court considered a lethal injection protocol used in Oklahoma executions.
The Washington Post reflects further on what the lethal injection decision could mean for the death penalty in the United States.