Supreme Court: No same-sex marriage bans, gay marriage now legal in all states
The US Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is a legal right across the United States as the landmark 5-4 decision was announced Friday. Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority ruled that marriage is a constitutional right for all.
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” he wrote, backed by the court’s four more liberal justices. “In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”
“It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage,” Justice Kennedy said of the couples challenging state bans on same-sex marriage. “Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
Before the ruling, gay couples could marry in 37 states in addition to Washington DC.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in a dissent joined by Justice Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said the Constitution has nothing to say on the subject.
“If you are among the many Americans — of whatever sexual orientation — who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote.
photo Julyo based on work by Gilbert Baker, 1979 via wikimedia commons
“Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”
In a second dissent, Justice Scalia mocked Justice Kennedy’s soaring language.
“The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic,” Justice Scalia wrote of his colleague’s work. “Of course the opinion’s showy profundities are often profoundly incoherent.”
“We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat,” said Mike Huckabee, Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor.
“The only outcome worse than this flawed, failed decision would be for the president and congress, two co-equal branches of government, to surrender in the face of this out-of-control act of unconstitutional, judicial tyranny.”
