Lines began forming around 6 a.m. on Friday for general spectator seats at today's oral argument in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case in which the Supreme Court is widely expected to uphold a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. With a rapid shift in public opinion favoring marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples and a slew of federal appellate rulings extending the Equal Protection Clause to gay couples, there is an air of inevitability around today's proceedings. Whether the optimism is warranted will be seen at the end of June, but either way, a federal right to same-sex marriage must be understood in context, both a civil rights context in the U.S. and a human rights context around the world. ...

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