The U.S. Supreme Court docket today (October 29) announced that the eight DOMA cases, the Proposition 8 case, and a case involving benefits for gay employees in Arizona have all been scheduled for discussion by the justices on Tuesday, November 20. That means the court will likely announce on Wednesday or soon thereafter whether it intends to take up one or more of the historic cases this session or allow the lower court decision to stand.
The DOMA cases distributed to the November 20 conference include BLAG v. Gill, HHS v. Massachusetts and Massachusetts v. HHS, OPM v. Golinski, U.S. v. Windsor and Windsor v. U.S., Pederson v. OPM and OPM v. Pederson.
The court has also scheduled for the conference the Proposition 8 case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, and a case involving state benefits in Arizona, Brewer v. Diaz.
The justices originally scheduled the Proposition 8 appeal for their September 24 conference but, without explanation, did not act on that case. Instead, on September 26, they posted a notice in the press room at the U.S. Supreme Court building, stating only that the case was "rescheduled" for a later conference meeting.
Ted Olson, a lead attorney on the American Foundation for Equal Rights legal team that has won court victories striking down Proposition 8, said at the time he assumed the court wanted to discuss the California same-sex marriage ban case in the same conference with the Defense of Marriage Act cases.
Therese Stewart, Chief Deputy City Attorney for San Francisco which also opposed Proposition 8 in court, said the rescheduling of Hollingsworth may also have been a move to ensure their handling of the marriage cases don't have "any impact on the election."
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