What to watch for the week of June 24-June 28, 2013:

This week, there's a high likelihood of decisions coming down in the hotly contested and highly-publicized same-sex marriage cases. As such, it's important to know the two cases, and what's at stake:

United States v. Windsor
The challenger: Edith Windsor
What's being challenge: Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In short, the court must decide whether Congress is able to differentiate in its treatment of married same-sex couples differently from married opposite-sex couples in how it utilizes laws and programs such as income taxes, Social Security benefits, and immigration
The twist: Windsor and the "United States" are actually on the same side, because President Obama actually defends Windsor in DOMA being unconstitutional in its treatment of same-sex couples. The challenge here is actually from political Republicans
Possible swing vote: Justice Anthony Kennedy is believed to hold the deciding vote

Hollingsworth v. Perry
The challengers: Kristin Perry/Sandra Stier, who were denied a marriage license by the state of California because of them constituting a same-sex couple; and Dennis Hollingsworth, who's the leader of ProtectMarriage.com, an official proponents of Proposition 8
What's being challenged: California's Proposition 8, passed in November of 2008 and deciding that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California"
The twist: many believe that the Court may say that those who are defending Proposition 8 and opposing same-sex marriage do not have the legal standing to challenge it in court
Possible swing vote: the Court could avoid deciding this case altogether by determining that because of those defending Proposition 8 not having the legal standing to do so, the Court made a mistake in taking the case at all and dismiss it