Court decisions highlight political challenges facing GOP

Yet the response to Friday's ruling to give same-sex couples the right to marry was mild in comparison with the outrage that followed the high court's decision Thursday to uphold President Barack Obama's health care law.

The GOP's presidential class is ready to bet big their opposition to Obama's health care law will resonate with voters.

[...] facing a seismic shift in public opinion on gay marriage, several of the party's most ambitious appear ready to turn the page on a social issue the GOP used for a generation to motivate its most passionate voters to turn out at the polls.

Perhaps no Republican presidential candidate better illustrated the contrast than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was ready with a fiery statement and a video, "This is not the end of the fight," to decry the Supreme Court's affirmation of the Affordable Care Act.

The anti-gay marriage organization has given each Republican presidential contender two weeks to return a signed pledge that, among other things locks candidates into supporting a constitutional amendment "that protects marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

The first paid advertisement in response to the court's health care ruling came within an hour from Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by billionaire energy executives Charles and David Koch.