Foreign Law Invoked in Supreme Court Consideration of Same-Sex Marriage

Oral arguments were heard this week in the U.S. Supreme Court on the matter of homosexual marriage. A few dozen very interesting friend of the court briefs have been submitted by both sides of the question.
An ongoing debate in the United States is whether the Court should take into consideration the legal practices and opinions of foreign courts and international bodies. In recent years the Supreme Court has cited foreign courts and new norms, particularly in the Lawrence v. Texas decision that Constitutionlized homosexual sodomy, and also the in the Roper v. Simmons decision that overturned the “juvenile” death penalty.

Conservatives on the bench, such as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, have dissented from this practice it the past, and new additions to the Court, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, have said before the U.S. Senate that they would oppose such notions.