The US Supreme Court year begins officially the first Monday in October, but the week before that date, the Court meets behind closed doors to decide which appeal cases that it will accept. If any four Justices want to hear a case, the Court must hear and rule on said case. If the Court refuses to hear a case, then the ruling stands of the last Federal Court where it was tried.

This week the Court will decide if it wants to hear the appeal of seven lower courts' rulings against the bans on gay marriage. The Court can choose any one of the rulings or all of them. If they decide to hear a case, their ruling could come any time between now and when the session ends next June. Turning the appeals down would make gay marriage legal in all but three states. Since the ruling is such a game changer, the Court may want to made the ruling instead letting it become law by default.

Legal terms seem intentionally twisted for the layman. Often two negatives make a positive as it would be if the Court rules against the States' appeals. For a more complicated explanation of the above, see a Huffintonpost Article by Clicking Here.

NOTE: October 3, 2014. The Court chose to deal with gay marriage in this week's meeting. They may do so next week.