Australia

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australia's High Court "has cleared the way for a federal law on same-sex marriage, even though it struck down the ACT law providing for them." The court reasoned that the word marriage in the constitution is not restricted to opposite-sex unions. The court held that the Federal Parliament could change a law that restricts marriage to unions between men and women. "It was thought that if ever the Federal Parliament did legislate for same-sex marriage it would invite a constitutional challenge on the basis that the word 'marriage' in the Constitution meant only unions between a man and a woman," the newspaper further reports.