Arguments Made On Gay Marriage Before Supreme Court Judges
DETROIT (CBS DETROIT) - Both sides have made their case to the Supreme Court on gay marriage -- and now it's up to the justices to decide whether same-sex couples across the country should be able to wed.
Mary Bonauto, is the attorney for April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, the Oakland county women at the center of Michigan's case. She says she's grateful for the opportunity to argue on behalf of same-sex couples in the Supreme Court.
"The real heart of this issue, always and everyday, is real people who have committed to one another, who simply want to make that commitment a legal one," said Bonauto.
"It's not the job of the federal courts, nine people to step in and decide for the whole country, what marriage is."
The counter argument made for the state was to uphold Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage; made by attorney John Bursch.
"I think what we talked about today is that you can love your neighbor, no matter what their sexual orientation is, what choices they make about their life and still have a disagreement about what marriage means," said Burshch.
But April DeBoer, one of the women at the center of Michigan's case, says they're just asking to be treated equally under the law.
"Hopefully we are on the right side of history and our kids will now have equal protection.
It's a fool's game to try to predict from the argument which way the judges - we could be just provoking debate rather than tipping their hands at anything
and it could be that the court will not grant a broad constitutional right to same-sex marriages but could force states to recognize legally licensed marriages - from other states - which would have the practical effect of allowing same-sex marriages to exist around the country said Barry Bagnato from CBS News, who covers the Supreme Court.
While the high court isn't expected to rule until June, thousands of people gathered outside the court -- saying they wanted to witness history in the making.
