The case on the University of Texas’s affirmative action program, set to be argued Oct. 10, could resurrect an issue that has slipped off the national political radar for more than a decade. The first presidential debate, on domestic issues, takes place exactly one week before that. The vice presidential debate is Oct. 11.
“I’ve got to believe at this point in the campaign neither the president or Governor Romney is going to want to give a quote on any of this,” said Richard Taylor, a business diversity advocate and former Massachusetts transportation secretary under Romney. “If I was preparing either candidate for the debate, this would be on the checklist, … but I don’t think either campaign will be anxious to talk about it.”…
It’s unclear just which case or cases will be the vehicle for the court to consider same-sex marriage. But legal experts say it’s a near certainty the court will consider the constitutionality of the ban on federal benefits for same-sex spouses, known as the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA. In May, a federal appeals court based in Boston ruled the key part of the law unconstitutional. The justices almost always take cases in which lower courts struck down an act of Congress.
And if the high court wants to really take a deep dive into the issue, it could agree to take up the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. A federal appeals court based in San Francisco ruled the ban unconstitutional in February. That case could resolve the question of whether there’s a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage, though the appeals court sought to resolve it on narrower grounds.
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