Amy Howe and Marty Lederman, in the SCOTUS blog (currently live streaming), set the stage for the anticipated rulings:
Howe speaks in “plain English” as to what might happen…
(DOMA is) not about whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Instead, it is about whether Congress can treat married same-sex couples differently from married opposite-sex couples in federal laws and programs like Social Security benefits, immigration, and income taxes.”
The case before the court is about Edith Windsor who has a $400,000 federal tax bill inherited from her spouse (legally married in Canada) who died: a bill that would not have existed if she was married to a man.
Windsor prevailed in the lower courts, which agreed that the law was unconstitutional. And with the United States now taking her side in the legal fight, the Supreme Court granted review last winter….
Lederman focuses in depth on the Prop 8 case, “Revisiting the Court’s several options in the California marriage case“.