It's routine to see, for example, a highly respected trial judge come to one conclusion, a three-judge appellate panel split 2-1 on whether she was right, and the Supreme Court divide 5-4 or 6-3 on whether to affirm that appellate panel.
The full Senate would then have to vote on whether to affirm the committee's suggestion.
The commission's ruling is preliminary, and the panel will have to vote again next year on whether to affirm that decision.
Mr. Bloomberg's donation, which was announced on Friday, is the largest individual contribution received by proponents of same-sex marriage in Maryland, where voters will face a referendum in November on whether to affirm or reject a state law passed this year to allow gay couples to marry.
In a case brought by Abigail Fisher, a white student denied admission to the University of Texas at Austin, the Supreme Court is considering whether to affirm, limit or overturn a 2003 ruling allowing public universities to consider race as one factor in an "holistic review".
The justices will meet this week to discuss the case and vote on whether to affirm or reverse the lower court.
The Getty appealed, and it's now up to the national high court whether to affirm or overturn the decision that the Bronze belongs to Italy.
"It appears now, with the 6th Circuit, the Supreme Court will take up one of these cases and decide whether to affirm states' rights to define marriage between a man and a woman," said Jim Campbell, a senior attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which opposes same-sex marriage.
Whether "denouncing or affirming," its vision "fed on the distance between promise and fact".
While affirming that ultraportables represent "a nice concept," he questions whether the benefit of a smallish notebook computer is worth its premium price.
Still, the only issue for the critics of Brandeis is whether they affirm Ms. Hirsi Ali's prejudicial and deeply offensive views on Islam as a violent and fascistic religious tradition.
