Eleven years after Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriages, the justices agreed to consider lifting the bans that remain in place in 14 states, accepting appeals from couples in Michigan,Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio.
The court’s ruling, likely to come in late June, may stand alongside the 1967 decision that said interracial couples had a constitutional right to marry. Whatever the outcome, the case will be a defining moment for Chief Justice John Roberts’s court.
