How SCOTUS rules on marriage equality may come down to familiar question, tone

I personally think that this morning, the lgbt community got a welcome, albeit minor, scare at SCOTUS. It should serve a reminder that nothing is a cake walk and we shouldn't celebrate until battles are over and not when they look as if they are over.

Let me also say that after that minor scare, things look good for 50 state marriage equality. All in all, it could boil down to the same thing which tipped the Windsor decision to us - the dignity of same-sex families and our children.

But rather than giving you an expository, I am going to spotlight what I feel were the three best articles which emphasizes the main points of today's oral hearing, particularly the part which may tip the case in our favor:

Supreme Court Mulls How Marriage Equality Will Come About - From the Huffington Post comes a general overview of today's oral session, including how the swing vote the lgbt community is counting on, Justice Anthony Kennedy, gave us a huge scare this morning and how the lawyer defending marriage equality bans actually brought Kennedy back to why he ruled in our favor in Windsor.  

The Lawyer Defending Discrimination In The Supreme Court May Have Just Talked Himself Out Of Victory - From Think Progress, a special look at the exchange which MAY give us 50-state marriage equality while providing emphasis that opponents of marriage equality simply don't have a justifiable argument. 

 Marriage Equality Arguments First Reaction: Ginsburg Strikes, Kennedy Wavers - From Slate comes a wonderful analysis of the day which goes like this - Kennedy is a tough questioner to both sides of the issue, but has genuine concerns about same-sex families, Alito is a complete butthead, and Ginsberg is a bad ass steel armored bullet-proof Earth Mother. 

So what do I think? In one form or another, marriage equality is here to stay. There are serious trepidations and fear by some of the justices of what they claim to be a "redefinition" of the institution. But this fear is going to be measured with (and hopefully outweighed by) giving same-sex families and their children the fairness and dignity of equal marriage. For now, nothing is for sure. But it does look good.