US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is calling on the Supreme Court to guarantee constitutional rights for same-sex couples.
Last week, Clinton announced that she would be running for president in the 2016 elections and was put on the spot about the Justice Department's assertion that same-sex marriage bans in various states "cannot be reconciled with the fundamental constitutional guarantee of 'equal protection of the laws.'"
Clinton's staff responded by issuing a statement confirming her support for marriage equality.
"Hillary Clinton supports marriage equality and hopes the Supreme Court will come down on the side of same-sex couples being guaranteed that constitutional right," Adrienne Elrod, spokesperson of Hillary for America, told BuzzFeed News.
Clinton's comments come two weeks before the Supreme Court debates whether same-sex marriages violate the US Constitution.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments from cases filed from the states of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee on April 28.
The former Secretary of State had been vocal about her support for the LGBT community after she left the State Department in 2013. On March 13, 2013, her staff released a video in which she expressed her support for same-sex marriages.
Clinton described the LGBT community "full and equal citizens" that deserve the "rights of citizenship" including marriage.
"That's why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law," Clinton explained.
In June 2014, NPR's Terry Gross conducted an interview with Clinton in which she lauded the work of activists in settling the issue "state to state" and said that "it is working."
