US Supreme Court takes on gay marriage The justices' decision will place them at the centre of a fractious national debate and the announcement of the court's intervention electrified both supporters and opponents. The Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay activist group, hailed the decision as a "milestone" for "millions of loving couples who want to make a lifelong commitment through marriage." John Eastman, chairman of the National Organisation for Marriage and one the most outspoken opponents of same-sex weddings, said the court had sent "a strong signal" that it would uphold states' rights to outlaw gay marriage. While opinion polls show a growing majority in favour of gay marriage, and liberal rights groups have won a string of recent victories at the ballot box, the issue remains far from settled. Nine states, mainly in the liberal northeast, as well as Washington DC have already approved gay marriage but 31 others have explicitly banned it through amendments to their constitutions. The court's decision to take on Proposition 8 will be the last stop for a legal battle that began in 2008, when California's own Supreme Court ruled that gay and lesbian couples had the right to marry under the state's constitution. Conservative groups took the issue to a public vote by forcing a referendum measure to alter the constitution to explicitly ban gay marriage. Although the conservative organisations won the referendum, their opponents immediately brought a legal challenge and a federal court in California ruled that that the right to gay marriage could not be taken away. The Supreme Court now has the option to reverse the lower court's decision, which would be a major setback for the gay marriage movement nationally, or else uphold it in a limited way that would only protect gay marriage in California. However, justices may also decide to address the central question of the national argument: whether the US constitution gives gay couples the same right to marry as straight couples. If the court decides that constitutional right does exist, it would effectively scrap all existing legislation that prevents gay marriage. "There's at least the potential that by the end of June all 50 states will be ordered to have gay marriage," Jeffrey Toobin, an expert on the Supreme Court, told CNN. The Supreme Court will also hear a challenge to the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that forbids the federal government from giving benefits to couples of the same sex. The case was brought by Edith Windsor, an 83-year-old lesbian, who was made to pay $363,000 (£226,000) in taxes after the death of her partner of 44 years. Miss Windsor would not have had to pay the tax if she was married to a man and she successfully argued before a New York court that her constitutional rights were being violated. The Obama administration said last year that it did not support DOMA, which was signed into law by Bill Clinton, and would make no attempt to defend it before the Supreme Court. Lawyers for the Republican-controlled House of Representatives will defend the law instead. Barack Obama became the first president to endorse gay marriage earlier this year, joining a growing majority of Americans in favour of same-sex couples being allowed to wed In a Pew Poll carried out n October, 49 per cent said they were supportive of allowing gays and lesbians to marry while 40 percent were opposed. The numbers represent a dramatic growth in the acceptance of gay marriage since 2008, when a similar poll found only 39 per cent in favour and 52 per cent opposed.