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White House urges caution on Supreme Court tea leaves

Initial readings of the Supreme Court’s oral argument Tuesday indicated that the justices will likely shy away from a broad ruling on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage.

But, alluding to the less-than-accurate predictions after last year’s oral arguments regarding the Obama health care law, the White House says: Hold yer horses.

“We've seen in recent history [that] there's ample reason to be cautious about predicting outcomes in Supreme Court cases based on any particular piece of the puzzle -- in this case, oral arguments," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday.

After the widely-panned performance last year of the federal government’s lawyer, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., some commentators predicted that the court would flatly declare the Obama administration’s hard-fought health care law to be unconstitutional.

The court’s decision in June upheld the health care law. 

NBC's Shawna Thomas contributed to this report.