SCOTUS to Hear Same-Sex Marriage Cases

Yeah, you probably already heard the news, but I wouldn't be a very good employment law blogger if I didn't mention this. The Supreme Court will decide a pair of important same-sex marriage issues. Per the Court's Friday order, the issues are:

1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? 

2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?

The outcome could affect a number of employment issues. For example, if the Court recognizes a right to SSM, the same-sex spouses would presumably be entitled to FMLA leave; benefits plan provisions applying to spouses would include these new marriages; the IRS would treat same-sex spouses the same as opposite-sex spouses, etc.

You can read further analysis of the upcoming SCOTUS cases as SCOTUSblog.