Obama Adminstration Asks Supreme Court To Overturn California’s Gay Marriage Ban

In a brief filed with the Supreme Court Thursday, the Obama administration asks the court to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage that has been in effect in California since the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008.

If the administration’s position is accepted by the court, it could result in gay marriage becoming legal in seven other states that, in addition to California, offer gay couples all the benefits of marriage without explicitly allowing them to wed. Those states are Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island.

SCOTUS blog reports that administration sources said President Obama “was involved directly in the government’s choice of whether to enter the case at all, and then in fashioning the argument that it should make.” The site also indicates that “the president could take the opportunity to speak to the nation on the marriage question soon.”

The dramatic move from President Obama is the latest in his “evolution” on the same-sex issue, after personally endorsing it in May of 2012 and then becoming the first president to reference gay rights in an inauguration address last month.

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