US Supreme Court votes to allow gay marriage across the United States
SAME-SEX couples now have the right to marry anywhere in the US after the Supreme Court has legalised gay marriage in a historic ruling.
PRESIDENT Barack Obama says the legalisation of gay marriage across the US is a “victory for America”.
The Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal throughout the nation in a landmark decision.
In a 5-4 ruling, the highest court in the United States said the Constitution requires all 50 states to carry out and recognize marriages between people of the same sex.
Gay and lesbian couples could already marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia. But the court’s ruling means the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage.
But Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said his views on gay marriage “haven’t changed”.
“Obviously there is a community debate going on, I have views on the subject which are pretty well known and they haven’t changed,” Mr Abbott said in Melbourne todau.
The court decision marked a fresh coup for the White House, coming a day after the Supreme Court upheld an important and disputed section of Obama’s signature health care reform.
“Today we can say in no uncertain terms that we’ve made our union a little more perfect,” Obama said at the White House, which was later lit up in the rainbow colors of the gay rights movement.
“This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts -- when all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free.”
Flag-waving LGBT advocates on the packed Supreme Court forecourt -- some in tears -- cheered, danced, shouted “USA! USA!” and sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in celebration.
The outcome is the culmination of two decades of Supreme Court litigation over marriage, and gay rights generally.
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton called the move a “historic victory”.
Today is a big step in our march toward equality. Gay and lesbian couples now have the right to marry, just like anyone else. #LoveWins
— President Obama (@POTUS) June 26, 2015Proud to celebrate a historic victory for marriage equality—& the courage & determination of LGBT Americans who made it possible. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 26, 2015“No union is more profound than marriage,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by the court’s four more liberal justices.
The ruling will not take effect immediately because the court gives the losing side roughly three weeks to ask for reconsideration. But some state officials and county clerks might decide there is little risk in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The cases before the court involved laws from several states that define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Those states have not allowed same-sex couples to marry within their borders and they also have refused to recognise valid marriages from elsewhere.
The crowd chanting after love wins! #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/2pA0UxAhlT
— ACLU Nation'sCapital (@ACLU_NCA) June 26, 2015Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 26, 2015
Equality For All!
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) June 26, 2015It's a new day. Thank you Supreme Court. Thank you Justice Kennedy. Your opinion is profound, in more ways than you may know. #huzzah
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) June 26, 2015Just two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down part of the federal anti-gay marriage law that denied a range of government benefits to legally married same-sex couples.
The decision in United States v. Windsor did not address the validity of state marriage bans.
Courts across the country, with few exceptions, said its logic compelled them to invalidate state laws that prohibited gay and lesbian couples from marrying.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy swung the vote in favour of same-sex marriage.
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were,” he wrote. “As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to finds its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loliness, excluded from one of civilisation’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
However Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas all disagreed and voted no.
“Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie,” Justice Scalia wrote.
“Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us,” Justice Roberts argued in his dissent. “Stealing this issue from the people will for many cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Stephen Breyer all joined with Justice Kennedy to vote in favour of same-sex marriage.
The ruling was greeted with excitement across the gay community.
Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter of Milk and the partner of British Olympic diver Tom Daley, tweeted that the ruling brought marriage equality to the US. Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who is openly gay and married since 2013 to lawyer Justin Mikita, tweeted that he was “hugely emotional”.
Lesbian chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and Apple CEO Tim Cook, who came out publically last year, also voiced their happiness on Twitter.
The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, released a video thanking supporters of same-sex marriage.
JUSTICE KENNEDY PROVIDES THE 5TH VOTE THAT BRINGS MARRIAGE EQUALITY TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
— Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) June 26, 2015Hugely emotional that marriage equality has finally come to the U.S. History! Love ALWAYS wins. â¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸
— Jesse Tyler Ferguson (@jessetyler) June 26, 2015Love won. #MarriageEquality
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) June 26, 2015Not everyone was pleased with the ruling. Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal, who is a Republican presidential hopeful for 2016, claimed the decision went against the will of God. Another presidential candidate, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, called it an “out-of-control act of unconstitutional tyranny”.
Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that. http://t.co/1Kfw9l0KMG
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) June 26, 2015This flawed, failed decision is an out-of-control act of unconstitutional judicial tyranny --> http://t.co/WMborH3TxB #SCOTUS
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 26, 2015There were also reports of a “security event” at the Supreme Court following the decision, with the Supreme Court’s official blog tweeting that the upstairs Great Hall was evacuated and police with sniffer dogs were in the building.
Some sort of security event at SCOTUS. Upstairs Great Hall cleared. Police with dogs. But rest of the building isn’t involved. Will update.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 26, 2015
The number of states allowing same-sex marriage has grown rapidly. As recently as October, just over one-third of the states permitted same-sex marriage.
There are an estimated 390,000 married same-sex couples in the United States, according to Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, which tracks the demographics of gay and lesbian Americans. Another 70,000 couples living in states that do not currently permit them to wed would get married in the next three years, the institute says.
Roughly 1 million same-sex couples, married and unmarried, live together in the United States, the institute says.
The Obama administration backed the right of same-sex couples to marry. The Justice Department’s decision to stop defending the federal anti-marriage law in 2011 was an important moment for gay rights and President Barack Obama declared his support for same-sex marriage in 2012.
It's a new day. Thank you Supreme Court. Thank you Justice Kennedy. Your opinion is profound, in more ways than you may know. #huzzah
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) June 26, 2015
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