I would add that the Supreme Court has, in other cases, refused to answer reference questions in circumstances where the court felt the issue was moot, it was not ripe, it had been put forward in circumstances that might contribute to uncertainty. That led to the Supreme Court refusing to answer a question in the same-sex marriage reference. I have written about this, and written about some of the problems of uses of the reference function in a way that actually puts the court in a difficult position, and this may be one such case.
On November 19th, 2013. See this statement in context.