 It's official, the Supreme Court will hear the Prop 8 case. Meanwhile, supports growing in Congress for repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, and progress in state legislatures could mean even bigger advances for marriage in 2013. At the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume, and welcome to Marriage News Watch for December 11, 2012. Well, the big news this week is the Supreme Court. After weeks of suspense, they finally announced that they'll take two marriage cases, a first case to overturn Prop 8, and one of the lawsuits challenging DOMA. Now we can look forward to briefings and oral arguments in the spring, with the ruling probably by the end of June. These are going to be a very busy couple of months for marriage equality. It's a big deal that the Court took both the Prop 8 case and a DOMA case, because the cases take two different approaches to the freedom to marry. Prop 8 is a state law, which means that it forces California to deny the right to marry to gain lesbian couples. DOMA, on the other hand, isn't about the right to marry. The couple in those cases are already married. Instead, DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing those marriages. If the Court invalidates both Prop 8 and DOMA, it sets the stage for marriage equality at both the state and federal level. Of course, there are a lot of different ways that the Court could rule, and there should be plenty of activity in those cases between now and June. We'll have instant updates whenever there's important news in the case. Subscribe here on YouTube and at AFER.org to stay up to date. While those cases work their way through the Court, congressional support for DOMA repeal is at an all-time high. Last year, 109 representatives supported the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal DOMA. This year, that's up to 159. Passage in the House requires 218. And national polling on marriage continues to trend in our favor. New data from Quinnipiac and Gallup show support climbing over last year. Turning to states, marriage began this weekend in Washington, with nearly 300 licenses issued in just the first few hours after midnight. Across the country, main marriages begin on December 29. Several towns there will hold special hours to issue licenses. And marriage in Maryland begins on January 1. One of the next states to watch for marriage is Minnesota. Governor Mark Dayton this week expressed his eagerness to pass a marriage bill if it can pass the legislature, which is now controlled by Democrats. Organizers in Illinois are also pushing a marriage bill in the legislature. It may come to a vote as early as January. A new survey from public policy polling shows the bill would be supported by 47 percent of Illinois voters with 42 percent opposed. Support is even stronger in New Jersey at 53 percent to 36 percent opposed. Lawmakers there need 27 Senate votes and 54 Assembly votes to override Governor Chris Christie's veto. Organizers say they're close to reaching those numbers, but they aren't quite there yet. 2012 has been a huge year for marriage, but 2013 is already shaping up to be even busier yet. We have at least two major cases before the Supreme Court, some very close votes in state legislatures, and a handful of states that could be close to putting marriage on the ballot. Subscribe here on YouTube and at AFER.org to stay up to date on all this work, and to find out where you can get involved. At the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume. We'll see you next week.