U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal by opponents of DC’s gay marriage law

The U.S. Supreme Court this week refused to hear the appeal of a group of clergy in Washington, D.C., who want to put the city’s new marriage equality law on the ballot.

The denial of review appears to be the end of the line now for opponents of equal marriage rights in the nation’s capital.

The District of Columbia enacted its marriage equality law in March of last year, but not before a group of clergy, led by Maryland Bishop Harry Jackson, tried to stop the law from going into effect by requesting an emergency order from the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court refused that request, in Jackson v. D.C., but the group came back with this second effort aimed at undoing the marriage equality law.

What the group sought, in Jackson v. D.C. II, was a ruling from the high court saying the D.C. government could not bar an initiative regarding whether to repeal the marriage equality law.

The question before the Supreme Court, however, was not about marriage on the surface. On the surface, the question was whether the city’s law governing initiatives can bar voters from considering an initiative that violates the city’s human rights act.

Important to the case was the fact that Washington, D.C., is not a state but a unique District, controlled by the Congress to serve as the nation’s center of government. But in recognition of the needs of citizens who reside in the District of Columbia and who raise and school children there and require routine services such as fire and police protection, Congress, in 1973, provided for the formation of a D.C. Council to govern its citizens under a “Home Rule Act,” or D.C. Charter.