After a series of delays, the Supreme Court has finally announced that it will take on the issue of same-sex marriage this term. There were several cases on the docket, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear two. The key same-sex marriage issues raised on appeal are summarized below.

United States v. Windsor: This was one of several cases challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines “marriage” for all purposes under federal law as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” The issue before the Court is whether DOMA deprives same-sex couples—who are lawfully married in states that permit it — of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Hollingsworth v. Perry: The issue before the Court is whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the State of California from enforcing Proposition Eight, a voter-approved measure defining marriage as the· union of a man and a woman.