One after another, US judges are declaring it's too late to turn back on the topic of same-sex marriage.
An unbroken string of state and federal court rulings in support of gay and lesbian unions covers every region of the country, including the conservative South. So far, there are 26 states where same-sex couples can get married or a judge has ruled they ought to be allowed.
Gay marriage may be at a legal tipping point, where the cause has won such wide-ranging approval that it will be hard for the Supreme Court to rule against it. The court rulings and the measured response of even elected officials who oppose same-sex marriage may be especially important for the high court justices who have worried about acting too quickly to impose the legality of same-sex marriage nationwide.
All the rulings came after the Supreme Court decision last June that struck down part of a federal anti-gay marriage law but did not apply to bans that were then in place in roughly three dozen states. Judges in lower courts, though, have had no trouble extending the high court's ruling to prohibit states from discriminating against same-sex couples who want to wed.
"Judges can read the tea leaves," UCLA law professor Adam Winkler said. "They know where the Supreme Court is going. They know where society is going. Do they want their grandkids knowing they wrote an opinion stopping gay marriage?"
The Supreme Court is widely expected eventually to jump back into the issue, though it is not known when. Appeals could start arriving at the court by late summer or early fall.
"The country is ready, but the Supreme Court needs to do the tipping," said Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a national coalition of advocacy groups working for same-gender marriage.
The latest ruling to strike down a gay marriage ban came in Pennsylvania. It was followed quickly by word from Republican Gov. Tom Corbett that he would not appeal and instead let the decision take effect. Corbett, who opposes gay and lesbian marriage, is facing a tough campaign for re-election this year.
Gay marriage opponents say they expect more of a mixed record in the courts by the time the Supreme Court gets involved, and they take issue with the notion that US public opinion has shifted as dramatically as many polls show.
In some respects, the series of rulings is just the latest manifestation of the extraordinary change in attitudes about same-sex marriage.
