compson1

I can't believe they granted cert to the Prop 8 case. It makes so little sense.

OP will probably get to this, but the full faith and credit issue is not before the court on this go-round.

IMO, this is the real DOMA issue, but as usual if the court can avoid making sweeping changes to law ("All marriages are good in every state."), then they will. ("DOMA is unconstitutional because Equal Protection.")

Yeah, I think it's clear that they are going to punt, so you are probably right. They waded into the political issue much too soon. The landscape is still being decided by the voters.

I think that the commerce clause is the most important, yet least known-about piece of American law. It's been responsible for so much. When I tell people that it was used to desegregate hotels, they are very surprised.

That's Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, if anyone is interested.

Kind of. The party challenging the law is doing so on equal protection grounds, not full faith and credit grounds. There is much more on-point jurisprudence surrounding equal protection than there is full faith and credit, so the the equal protection argument is probably an easier row to hoe.

Basically, their argument is "The way this law is applied, it makes it so that the US is treating a suspect class unfairly," instead of "On its face, this law could potentially hurt married people who move to another state." Obviously, the former is a "stronger" case, if such a thing exists at this level.

OP will know better/more.