A three-judge panel heard marriage equality cases from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas at the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today, and according to initial reports, the court appears poised to strike down marriage bans in all three states.
BuzzFeed‘s legal editor Chris Geidner, who attended today’s hearings at the federal courthouse in New Orleans, reports that “Judges Patrick Higginbotham and James Graves Jr. grew increasingly skeptical of the three states’ arguments as the morning wore on, with Judge Jerry Smith at times interjecting to slow down one of his colleagues’ lines of questioning in the courtroom.”
And, Geidner notes, shortly after the first hearing began at 9 a.m. Central time, attorneys and judges noted that the U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to meet the same day to consider possibly taking up one or more of the five marriage equality cases pending before it. If it does so, “this could all be moot,” Judge Smith reportedly said. The Supreme Court did not announce that it was taking up any marriage cases today, though it could announce additional cases it will hear this term as early as Monday, according to the Washington Blade.
