Supreme court rules in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide by ariane de vogue and jeremy diamond, cnn, sat june 27, 2015 in a landmark opinion, a divided supreme court on friday ruled that same-sex couples can marry nationwide, establishing a new civil right and handing gay rights advocates a historic victory…. there were two questions before the court, the first asked whether states could ban same sex marriage, the second asked whether states had to recognize lawful marriages performed out of state. the relevant cases were argued earlier this year. attorney john bursch, serving as michigan's special assistant attorney general, defended four states' bans on gay marriage before the court, arguing that the case was not about how to define marriage, but rather about who gets to decide the question. the debate over the legalization of same-sex marriage under the united states government is best understood under the context that a) freedom to get married is protected under the 1st amendment in the bill of rights. b) rights to regulate marriage are among shared powers between state and federal government. c) rights to regulate marriage have historically been interpreted as reserved to state governments. d) rights to regulate marriage were expressly granted to the federal government not state government.