In a 5-4 decision, authored by Justice Kennedy, same sex marriage bans all across the country have been held unconstitutional today. This is a very good day for everyone who believes in the fundamental dignity of all human beings, and each individual’s right to marry the person they love, regardless of sexual orientation or gender. It is an historic day, a day in which all Americans can take pride.
To read the decision, go to this link.
A few, brief excerpts:
[T]he right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty. The Court now holds that same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry.” […]
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. 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 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.
