The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the spring in two same-sex marriage cases. The first involves the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, the referendum that overturned a California Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriages legal in that state. The second, which could have significant implications for Vermont, involves the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, the 1996 federal statute that defines marriage in terms of federal law as the legal union of one man and one woman.