The Supreme Court gave itself plenty of room to maneuver when it agreed Friday to review the issue of same-sex marriage. The justices could decide one of the great political and civil rights questions of our time, rule narrowly on the two cases it accepted or even punt, on the grounds that the cases are not properly before them.

But the court may have made it more difficult for President Obama to avoid taking a stand on whether it is unconstitutional to exclude same-sex couples from the fundamental right to marry no matter where they live.

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