Updates on the oral argument in the same-sex marriage cases.

At SCOTUSblog, here.

"The [petitioners] had said they were looking to 'join the institution of marriage.' The chief objected that perhaps they were not looking to redefine it, not join it. And he emphasized that he had looked up all the definitions he could find, and it was always a man and a woman..."

"Justice Kennedy said he had 'a word on his mind .. and that word is millennia'... He pointed out that the definition of marriage had prevailed for millennia and it seemed a fast change; on the other hand, he noted that the time between Lawrence and this case was about equal to the time between Brown and Loving -- this raised the question for him of whether this might all be too fast to redefine such a long standing institution."

So Roberts and Kennedy are thinking in terms of redefining the word.

Justice Scalia started a discussion about whether "a minister who objects to same sex marriages could refuse to perform a civil same-sex wedding" and seemed satisfied with the argument that First Amendment rights would protect the minister.

The SCOTUSblog writer notes the contrast between the Justices who stressed "the 'millennia long' definition of marriage" and those who forefronted "the relatively new character of egalitarian marriage." Also, there was "a kind of quirky historical dispute about whether ancient societies with their heterosexual definition of marriage could not be trusted (because they generally discriminated against gays and lesbians), or whether they could be, because they were generally more open to homosexuality outside the marriage context (Alito asked this question about Ancient Greece)."