Obama Administration Endorses Gay Marriage For 8 More States

The Obama administration filed a Supreme Court brief Thursday that would effectively allow same-sex marriage in eight more states, SCOTUSBlog reports.

The DOJ filed the friend-of-the-court brief in a Supreme Court battle over California's gay marriage ban, which is known as Proposition 8.

There was speculation about whether the Obama administration would go as far as to say that marriage should be allowed throughout the entire country.

Indeed, it appears the federal government took a more limited view than it could have, according to SCOTUSBlog.

The Obama administration said that states that already allow civil unions for same-sex couples should have to take the final step and allow gays to get married.

"The argument is that it violates the Constitution's guarantee of legal equality when both same-sex and opposite-sex couples are entitled to the same marital benefits, but only the opposite-sex couples can get married," Lyle Denniston writes in SCOTUSBlog.

The eight states that would have to allow marriage under this logic would be California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Rhode Island.