Gay marriage, health care among looming rulings for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — Tensions are building inside and outside the white marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the nine justices prepare to issue major rulings on gay marriage and President Barack Obama’s health care law by the end of the month.

Of the 11 cases left to decide, the biggest are a challenge by gay couples to state laws banning same-sex marriage and a conservative challenge to subsidies provided under the Obamacare law to help low- and middle-income people buy health insurance that could lead to millions of people losing medical coverage.

Many legal experts predict the court will legalize gay marriage nationwide by finding that the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal treatment under the law and due process prohibit states from banning same-sex nuptials.

The four liberal justices are expected to support same-sex marriage, and conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, the expected swing vote, has a history of backing gay rights.

The health care decision is tougher to call. Chief Justice John Roberts, the swing vote when the court upheld Obamacare in 2012, said little during the March 4 oral argument to indicate how he will vote.

Many Christian evangelicals say they would refuse to obey a decision allowing gay unions.

The Defend Marriage pledge — signed by more than 50,000 people, including Republican presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum — is one of a series of measures launched by social conservatives to push back against same-sex unions.

“The justices are not always right, and this is clearly a case that finds a right that is not in the Constitution, and we will not be able to respect that ruling,” said the Rev. Rick Scarborough, a prominent Baptist pastor in Texas and one of the authors of the pledge.

Rev. Scarborough says those who signed the petition will resist all government efforts to require them to accept gay marriage. He says some, including himself, will accept any fine, arrest or even jail time to protect their religious freedom.

Meanwhile, Adam Talbot of the Human Rights Campaign, at the forefront of the fight for gay marriage, said, “It is deeply sad that a radical and small group of folks are so enraged by other people’s happiness and legal equality that they are willing to plant their feet on the wrong side of history.”

The court will issue some rulings today, with more likely later in the week.

The justices could signal by the end of June whether they are likely to take up the biggest case on the hotbutton subject in nearly a quarter-century.

The court is considering an emergency appeal from abortion providers in Texas, who want the justices to block two provisions of a state law that already has forced the closure of roughly half the licensed abortion clinics in the state. Ten of the remaining 19 clinics will have to shut their doors by July 1, without an order from the Supreme Court.

The Texas law is among a wave of state measures in recent years that have placed restrictions on when in a pregnancy abortions may be performed.