The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether homeowners who declare bankruptcy can void a second mortgage if the home’s market value has dropped below the amount they owe on the first mortgage, the Memphis Daily News reports. The case involves Florida homeowners who were allowed to nullify second loans held by Bank of America. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed both cases, but Bank of America says the rulings conflict with Supreme Court precedent and the rulings of other appellate courts that have considered the issue.

Gay and lesbian couples today filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to decide whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, the New York Times reports. The petition arrived eight days after the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld bans on same-sex marriage in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. A second petition focusing on recognition of already-married couples was later  filed from Tennessee. It raises an additional issue: whether the ban on recognition violates married couples’ right to travel between the states, SCOTUS blog reports.The fast pace of the filing was an effort to ensure that the justices be able to hear and decide a case before the current Supreme Court term ends in late June.

The issue of affirmative action could be headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court yesterday refused to reconsider a ruling allowing use of race as a factor in University of Texas undergraduate admissions. Abigail Fisher, who is white, sued in 2008 after she was denied admission. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, but justices told the appeals court to re-examine Fisher's arguments. Fisher's attorneys had asked the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a recent ruling that found barring the university from considering race would mean a less student diversity — in defiance of legal precedent promoting diversity as an important part of education. The Greeneville Sun has the story.

Viewers of Fox and MSNBC in the Washington, D.C., area will soon see a new ad that calls for greater Supreme Court transparency, the ABA Journal reports from various news sources. The six-figure campaign unveiled today by a group called Fix the Court criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court as the “most powerful and least accountable branch of government. The ad campaign has five goals: for the court to report reasons for recusals, to post detailed financial disclosures online, to adhere to the code of ethics governing federal judges, to disclose public appearances and generally allow media coverage, and to broadcast live oral arguments and opinion announcements.

The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted a temporary stay and is allowing same-sex marriages to proceed in Kansas, the ABA Journal reports. The order vacates a stay issued Monday evening by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles emergency appeals from the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Kansas Supreme Court had stayed same-sex marriage in the state pending proceedings before the court, but a federal judge later ordered the state to begin issuing marriage licenses, a decision that was “a de facto circumvention” of the state litigation, the state argued in its emergency stay application. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas would have granted the stay application, according to the order.

Two decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday upheld the rights of police officers. In the first case, the court found that failure to cite Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act in a suit for alleged due-process violations did not doom a claim brought by fired police officers. The officers had sued the city of Shelby, Mississippi, claiming they were fired because they brought to light an alderman’s criminal activity. Their suit alleged violations of due-process rights but did not cite Section 1983. A trial judge and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the oversight required dismissal of the suit. In the second case, the court ruled that a police officer that entered a couple’s backyard and accessed their deck without a warrant was entitled to qualified immunity because of the facts of the case. The lower court had ruled the officer should have used the front door under the “knock and talk” exception to getting a warrant. The ABA Journal reports on both cases.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has temporarily blocked same-sex marriages in Kansas in response to the state’s request for a stay. Kansas argues that its case is different from others the court decided not to hear because it deals with the authority of a federal court to overturn a state Supreme Court decision. When a federal judge ordered the state to begin issuing marriage licenses it was “a de facto circumvention” of state litigation, which is working its way through state courts, officials argue. The Kansas Supreme Court had imposed a stay while the case was pending. Sotomayor gave lawyers for same sex couples until 5 p.m. tonight to file a response. The ABA Journal has more.

The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to hear a new challenge to President Barack Obama's health care law, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. The justices said they will decide whether the law allows subsidies to be given to millions of low- and middle-income people regardless of whether they live in states that set up their own exchanges or are relying on the federal exchange. A federal appeals court upheld IRS regulations that allow subsidies for consumers in all 50 states. Opponents, however, argue the law limits the assistance to those in state-run exchanges.

Same-sex couples from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee will be seeking U.S. Supreme Court review after yesterday’s decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the states' bans on gay marriages. Plaintiffs in all four states will skip the step of asking the full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the case and go directly to the Supreme Court, lawyers told BuzzFeed News today. “[G]iven the urgency of the issues for the Tennessee plaintiff couples, we will be asking the Supreme Court to review the Sixth Circuit decision rather than seeking en banc review,” National Center for Lesbian Rights lawyer Shannon Minter said. Abby Rubenfeld, lead lawyer for the Tennessee plaintiffs, said they hope to file within two weeks so they still can be on the docket for this term.

During the first week of the U.S. Supreme Court’s November sitting, justices granted one new case dealing with water rights between Florida and Georgia and heard arguments in four. Yesterday, the court waded into the international dispute of whether a U.S. citizen born in Jerusalem can list “Israel” as his place of birth on a passport and heard arguments in a securities law case. Today, the court heard arguments in a case testing whether whistleblowers are barred from making disclosures when prohibited by agency regulation, and a case questioning the timing of suits under the Truth in Lending Act. The court will hear two cases tomorrow – one testing the sweep of a law that seeks to protect criminal evidence from being destroyed and another looking at whether possession of a short-barreled shotgun should be treated as a violent felony. On Friday, the justices will consider additional petitions. SCOTUSblog has the ones to watch.