Sidestepping gay marriage

Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to wade into the national debate on gay marriage. The justices refused to hear a challenge to a 2003 Massachusetts high court ruling requiring the state to recognize same-sex marriages. Lawyer Erik Stanley of the conservative Liberty Counsel said the Supreme Court setback was just a “minor skirmish,” and promised that conservatives would now push even harder for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Arline Isaacson of Gay and Lesbian Advocates said the Supreme Court was right to let the state run its own affairs, but she didn’t expect the debate to die. “Our opponents are rabid,” she said. “They’re not going to give up.”