The Supreme Court took a new approach to same-sex marriage Monday

It shut up. 

The nation’s highest authority for determining the meaning of the law has declined to comment on the issue- at least for now. 

No, they’re not just being lazy (at least we don’t think so). There’s several possible reasons for this decision. 

First, the SCOTUS tends to intervene primarily when lower federal courts disagree.

However, the the 4th, 7th, and 10th (and now 9th) circuit Courts of Appeal  all agree that same-sex marriage is legal. 

The only reason that the high court might have intervened was because each of the lower courts’ decisions came with a “stay” stating that the ruling would not take effect until the Supreme Court had the chance to hear the issue.

With the court’s decision not to take the cases, the stay has lifted.

A second reason for the Supreme Silence could be that the court concluded that such a divisive social issue should not be subject to a national ruling.

For a full and fascinating breakdown of the decision, check out one of our favorite sources over at the SCOTUS blog. 

While the court may be keeping quiet, we hardly expect the same from our loyal readers. So let us know: did the court do the right thing?