Heterosexual couples that always have had the right to marry in Arizona are not entitled to the same benefits that the state provided to gay couples who were not at the time entitled to wed, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

Keith Berkshire, attorney for Kimberly McLaughlin, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn last year’s ruling by Arizona’s high court, which concluded that Suzan McLaughlin had the same right to claim parentage as if she had been Kimberly’s husband.

A new ruling Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court could strengthen claims by gays that they're entitled to more than just the right to marry.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided this year that gay marriages were legal nationwide, but American Indian reservations are not bound by the decision and many continue to forbid gay marriages and deny insurance and other benefits.

Arizona taxpayers are going to pay about $500,000 – and perhaps a lot more – in legal fees to lawyers who beat the state in two separate lawsuits challenging Arizona laws.

The Supreme Court has declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the United States.

Justices peppered both sides with questions Tuesday as the Supreme Court grappled with a case that could legalize same-sex marriage in every state, two years after overturning a federal ban on such unions.

Gov. Doug Ducey ordered the Department of Child Safety to allow married same-sex couples to jointly house foster children and adopt. Ducey ordered the policy change in response to an Arizona Capitol Times report that DCS had quietly reversed a policy that had allowed married same-sex couples to jointly adopt or provide foster care.

Even if a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this spring makes same-sex marriage the law, it would leave pockets of the country where it isn't likely to be recognized any time soon: the reservations of a handful of sovereign Native American tribes, including the nation's two largest.

A rundown of the people and groups who ended 2014 on the upswing and those who are glad to see the year come to an end.