supreme court to hear same-sex marriage cases

On December 2nd, the Supreme Court Judges held a conference to decide wether or not to hear 3 cases involving same-sex marriage. They delayed their decision and held a conference on Friday December 7th, which confirmed the hearing of two of the three cases. One case comes from California and the other from New York. President Obama has already declared that his administration will not defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which says that marriage is strictly between a man and a women, and the benefits  such as health insurance, medical leave and taxes that go along with it are concealed to that kind of marriage. Along with this, four district courts and two courts of appeal have declared DOMA unconstitutional, stating that it violates the guarantee  of equality. The California case has to deal with the State Supreme Court case overruling of Proposition 8, which was a referendum in California to ban same-sex marriage after the State Supreme Court made it legal. Speculations can be drawn that the Supreme Court will review the right to marry and the benefits that go along with it. So far, 31 states have laws protecting the traditional marriage between a man and a women.