Washington (CNN) -- The question of same-sex marriage went again before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in the last of two oral arguments this week in separate appeals. This session dealt with the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress in 1996. It said, in part, that legally married same-sex couples cannot enjoy the range of financial and other benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples. Here are five things we learned from arguments in this case: 1. Opening the gateways A Supreme Court justice is sometimes like a fussy 8-year-old. She must eat her peas before any dessert. The dessert, of course, in the same sex-marriage cases are the constitutional "equal protection questions" -- the ones that get to the heart of defining what marriage is all about, the ones the entire nation wants answered.
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Supreme Court hears a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act
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A key legal question: Can House defend DOMA when executive branch won't?
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Justice Elena Kagan's reading from 1996 act provides Wednesday's "moment"
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The high court's conservatives were noticeably subdued
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