US Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Kyle Thornburg

This is history, folks.

With a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Members of the court in dissension with the vote included Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Samuel Alito.

In a ruling covering four cases, including Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark Supreme Court decision renders state bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The matter of same-sex marriage has been all but concrete in courthouses across the US.

Friday’s decision paints without an abstract stroke on the issue, and comes on the two-year anniversary of United States v. Windsor, in which key elements of the so-called Defense of Marriage act were struck down.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 28-page statement from the Supreme Court Friday morning:

“The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach. A liberty that includes certain and specific rights that allow a persons within a lawful realm to define and express their identity,”

Also included in the official ruling, Justice Kennedy struck down arguments surrounding potential harmful effects of same-sex marriages on families saying those decisions are based solely on “personal, romantic, and practical considerations.”

According to the statement written by Chief Justice John Roberts, he and the dissenting voters relied on the Constitution to navigate “what the law is, not what it should be.”

For 13 states where state law formerly banned the right for same-sex couples to marry, no immediate action can be taken, but federal courts will take action to align state laws with the Supreme Court’s ruling.  It is expected that federal courts will move quickly to apply the Supreme Court’s decision, but the legal process can involve some delay. For 37 states and the District of Columbia, this ruling reinforces otherwise unchanged laws placed by state action or federal court rulings.

President Barack Obama spoke in the wake of the ruling Friday morning from the Rose Garden at the White House.

“This decision will end the patchwork system we currently have and it will end the uncertainty hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples face from not knowing whether their marriage legitimate in the eyes of one state will remain if they decide to move or even visit another,” says President Obama. “This ruling will strengthen all of our communities by offering to all loving same-sex couples the dignity of marriage across this great land.”

NOW! Onto the celebration!

 To show support of the Supreme Court decision, One Colorado encourages locals to gather at 6:30pm on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol.

 Congratulations, America! This is a win for us all.

In a nutshell

For:

Anthony Kennedy: “Under the Constitution, same-sex couples seek in marriage the same legal treatment as opposite-sex couples, and it would disparage their choices and diminish their personhood to deny them this right.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Sonia Sotomayor

Elena Kagan

Stephen Breyer

Against:

Chief Justice John Roberts: “Many people will rejoice at this decision, and I begrudge none their celebration. But for those who believe in a government of laws, not of men, the majority’s approach is deeply disheartening

Clarence Thomas: “This distortion of our Constitution not only ignores the text, it inverts the relationship between he individual and the state in our Republic. I cannot agree with it.”

Antonin Scalia: “[This decision] — and the public approval that conferring the name of marriage evidences — can perhaps have adverse social effects, but no more adverse than the effects of many other controversial laws.”

Samuel Alito, Jr.: “The Constitution says nothing about a right to same-sex marriage, but the Court holds that the term “liberty” in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment encompasses this right. Our nation was founded upon the principle that every person has the unalienable right to liberty, but liberty is a term of many meanings.”