Lawyers

• Defiance over gay marriage ruling in Alabama headed to court

  A federal judge in Alabama will hear arguments on Thursday on whether to force a local judge to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, a case with implications for dozens of counties in the state that have not granted the licenses in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Gay marriage advocates get victories in Kansas, South Carolina

  Gay marriage advocates won another two victories on Wednesday as the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Kansas to become the 33rd U.S. state where same-sex couples can wed and a federal judge struck down South Carolina's ban.

• Gay marriage advocates target U.S. Supreme Court after loss

  Gay marriage supporters in four states where bans on same-sex nuptials were upheld by a federal appeals court said on Friday they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue, and officials in two of the states vowed to do the same.

• Appeals court upholds gay marriage bans, reversing trend

  A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld gay marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, reversing the trend in federal courts to strike down such bans and piling pressure on the Supreme Court to take up the matter.

• Courts knock down gay marriage bans in Arizona, Alaska, Wyoming

  Barriers to gay marriage fell in Arizona, Alaska and Wyoming on Friday following a series of federal court actions in the latest in a series of legal victories for supporters of same-sex matrimony in America.

• Gay couples rush to courthouses in five U.S. states after Supreme Court decision

  When Jim Crowder saw a news headline on his cellphone on Monday morning that a Supreme Court decision had made gay marriage legal again in Indiana, he immediately called his partner of 31 years.

• Inmate beards, Facebook threats on U.S. top court's docket

  The U.S. Supreme Court opens on Monday a new term in which the nine justices will decide issues such as whether a Muslim prison inmate can have a beard and whether a man can be prosecuted for making threatening statements on Facebook.

• Gay marriage aside, business cases dominate U.S. high court docket

  Gay marriage may be the most anticipated issue heading for the U.S. Supreme Court, but the justices also must tackle a host of business cases as they convene for their new term, including a patent battle involving Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

• Federal district judge upholds Louisiana ban on gay marriage

  A federal district court judge in New Orleans upheld a Louisiana ban on gay marriage on Wednesday, in a break from a string of recent rulings against such bans in other states following a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling.