Nate Silver: “With the coming resumption of same-sex marriage in California, … the United States will surpass Europe in the availability of same-sex marriage as measured by share of the population. By August, about 95 million Americans out of a population of 314 million – about 30 percent – will live in states where same-sex marriage is legal. In Europe, that number is 169 million residents out of a population of 736 million, or about 23 percent.”

However, Dan Balz notes same-sex marriage “is not legal in more than three dozen states. Many of those states have written the bans into their constitutions. It could take years to change those provisions if the battles are engaged one by one, state by state. Only the Supreme Court could short-circuit that process.”

“House Republicans haven’t yet coalesced around a strategy to counter the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, with one member of the party’s conservative wing talking up a doomed effort to amend the Constitution while leadership seems resigned to leave the issue to the states,” Roll Call reports.

Gawker: “There are, in total, 29 U.S. Senators and Representatives who changed their positions regarding same-sex marriage since it was first voted on in 1996. Of those 29 politicians who no longer support DOMA, 24 signed an anti-DOMA amicus brief earlier this year. Still in office are 43 members of Congress who supported DOMA and continue to do so, as well as 31 politicians who always opposed the measure.”

The plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case before the Supreme Court received a phone call from President Obama while being interviewed by Thomas Roberts on MSNBC.

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Harry Enten: “In poll after poll taken over the past few months, at least 60% of Americans have agreed that the federal government should recognize same-sex marriages in those states that allow it…. The lack of a wider ruling on marriage at large likely saves the court from issuing a divisive opinion… While most Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal, polling is unclear on whether they want the federal government to force it upon the states. CBS News found that over 60% thought it should be left to the states, while an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll discovered the opposite. Even in that poll, however, most thought if a federal statute did exist it should define marriage as between one man and one woman.”