--- title: Supreme Court Passes on Gay Marriage for Now description: The Supreme Court skipped an early opportunity to wade back into the national debate on gay marriage Thursday. canonical: https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-02T16:02:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:34.124Z article:section: Politics og:title: Supreme Court Passes on Gay Marriage for Now og:description: The Supreme Court skipped an early opportunity to wade back into the national debate on gay marriage Thursday. og:url: https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd63495a19f4741a1/6986a699e8524bba62605079/168015456.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4200 og:image:height: 2363 og:image:alt: 168015456 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Supreme Court Passes on Gay Marriage for Now twitter:description: The Supreme Court skipped an early opportunity to wade back into the national debate on gay marriage Thursday. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd63495a19f4741a1/6986a699e8524bba62605079/168015456.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Supreme Court Passes on Gay Marriage Debate for Now > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Edie and Thea: A Love Story [Watch (HLS stream): Edie and Thea: A Love Story](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Kc02dmNR.m3u8) (4:37)  _Published 2013-12-11. Edith Windsor reflects on her life with late spouse, Thea Spyer, and the meaning of gay marriage_  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Oct 2, 2014 4:02 PM UTC  Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court of the United States Phil Roeder—Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Oct 2, 2014 4:02 PM UTC The Supreme Court skipped an early opportunity to wade back into the national debate on gay marriage Thursday. The nation’s top court did not include the seven different pending cases regarding same-sex marriage on a list of arguments it has agreed to hear that was released Thursday, ahead of the beginning of a new term on Monday, USA Today [reports](http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-takes-no-immediate-action-gay-marriage-134524235.html). But that doesn’t necessarily mean the Supreme Court won’t weigh in on the cases this term. The court often holds off on deciding whether to hear high-profile cases until later in its term. The cases in question revolve around gay marriage bans in five states: Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin. The Supreme Court last year ruled that the federal government could not deny benefits to same-sex couples but did not take a position on whether states are constitutionally allowed to ban same-sex marriage. [According](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/02/supreme-court-gay-marriage/16547165/?utm%5Fsource=feedblitz&utm%5Fmedium=FeedBlitzRss&utm%5Fcampaign=usatoday-newstopstories) to _USA Today,_ 31 states currently have marriage bans in place. But since last year’s Supreme Court ruling, judges in more than a dozen of those states have overturned the bans, leaving them in place pending appeals. \[[_USA Today_](http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-takes-no-immediate-action-gay-marriage-134524235.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/"},"headline":"Supreme Court Passes on Gay Marriage Debate for Now","datePublished":"2014-10-02T16:02:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:34.124Z","description":"The top court could still decide to hear one of the seven gay marriage cases pending before it.","url":"https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/","keywords":["Supreme Court","Gay Marriage","same sex marriage","Courts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd63495a19f4741a1/6986a699e8524bba62605079/168015456.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd63495a19f4741a1/6986a699e8524bba62605079/168015456.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"168015456","caption":"Supreme Court of the United States","creditText":"Phil Roeder—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/","name":"Supreme Court Passes on Gay Marriage Debate for Now"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Edie and Thea: A Love Story","description":"Edith Windsor reflects on her life with late spouse, Thea Spyer, and the meaning of gay marriage","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Kc02dmNR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-11T12:42:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Kc02dmNR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/","duration":"PT4M37S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3456672/supreme-court-gay-marriage/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```