Court Blocks Gay Marriage in 4 States

It's a rarity for advocates of gay marriage: defeat. A federal appeals court today upheld bans on same-sex marriage in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, reports the Columbus Dispatch. The ruling by the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals goes against decisions to allow gay marriage in four other federal courts and thus "virtually guarantees Supreme Court review," reports USA Today. The judge who wrote the decision suggested that it's too early in the debate over gay marriage for courts to be stepping in:

"When the courts do not let the people resolve new social issues like this one, they perpetuate the idea that the heroes in these change events are judges and lawyers," wrote GOP-appointed Jeffrey Sutton. "Better in this instance, we think, to allow change through the customary political processes, in which the people, gay and straight alike, become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way." (More gay marriage stories.)