Same-sex marriage: We'll always have... Utah? WHEN scholars write the history of America's gay-marriage battles, they may declare 2013 the year the balance tipped. For in the past 12 months the president has compared the campaign to America's other great civil-rights struggles, the Supreme Court has declared that the federal government has no business denying equal treatment to legally wedded gay couples, and the number of states in which people may marry whom they please has doubled, from nine to 18 (plus Washington, DC), covering 39% of the population. Most of the 18 are the sorts of progressive places one might expect. The last is anything but; as home to the Mormon church, a firm foe of gay marriage, Utah is among America's most conservative states. Yet on December 20th Robert Shelby, a federal judge, gave Utah's gay couples an early Christmas present by scrapping the state's same-sex marriage ban, approved by 66% of voters in 2004. Caught out, state officials are appealing against the ruling, but Judge Shelby and an appeals court declined to suspend his decision in the meantime. Utah has asked the Supreme Court to do so, and was awaiting its decision as The Economist went to press. Hundreds of couples flocked to the altar. If the decision stands Utah will become the seventh state to have gay marriage delivered by judges (the day before Judge Shelby's ruling, New Mexico's Supreme Court legalised gay marriage in that state). Eight legislatures have passed pro-marriage laws, as have voters in three states. But, says Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group, "all the low-hanging fruit is gone." Most of the 32 outstanding bans are in state constitutions and cannot be overturned by legislatures. So bar a few states, mainly in the West, which may hold public votes in the coming years, advocates are likely to enjoy most of their advances, and surely some setbacks, in courtrooms. And that could mean more Utah-style surprises. At least 35 lawsuits are making their way through federal courts in various states - including the curious case of two gay couples married in Massachusetts now seeking divorce in Texas, which does not allow gay marriage. Many plaintiffs have drawn succour from the Supreme Court's decision in June to strike down Section 3 of the Defence of Marriage Act, which had denied federal benefits to married gay couples. Anthony Kennedy's decision said nothing about the legality of state bans, but its anti-discrimination argument strengthened the case for opposing them. Ultimately one or other of the state cases will make it to the Supreme Court. When that will happen is anyone's guess. In June the justices declined to hear a challenge to California's gay-marriage ban on procedural grounds; they may prefer to let the issue unfold further in lower courts before taking on another case with national implications. Meanwhile, the court of public opinion appears to have reached its verdict; in July 54% of voters said gays should be granted the same marriage rights as heterosexuals, 12 percentage points higher than when Utah passed its ban.