Observers suspect that the recent string of marriage equality victories
could be broken next week:
Next Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit will convene in Cincinnati to hear several marriage equality cases arising out of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee — and the GOP-dominated panel that will hear these cases is unlikely to bring joy into the hearts of equality’s supporters. [...]
Lightning could strike a second time in Judge Sutton’s chambers, but he remains a very likely vote in favor of discrimination. And that means that the Sixth Circuit is likely to be the very first court in the country to side against equality since the Supreme Court struck down DOMA.
The problem is that the Sixth Circuit panel is made up of two Republican appointments and one Democratic one, and that's often all it takes in high-profile social issue cases to predict the outcome. It also is the single reason Republicans have been so very eager to block Obama appointments to the courts, even in cases of longstanding vacancy.
If you want a bit of silver lining on your possible bad news, here's a decent one: The Sixth Circuit has the highest rate of U.S. Supreme Court reversals in the last five years; of the 23 cases originating in the circuit heard by the Supreme Court, only one was left standing. Whatever the three-judge panel decides, it's unlikely to be the end of it.