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POLITICS

Supreme Court Rules Gay Marriage Is a Nationwide Right In 5-4 decision, justices say Constitution guarantees marriage equality to gay and lesbian couples By JESS BRAVIN Updated June 26, 2015 7:14 p.m. ET WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Friday ruled same-sex couples nationwide have a constitutional right to marry, a landmark decision that sweeps away state bans on gay unions and caps a rapid American transformation on the meaning of marriage. The 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, his fourth major gay-rights ruling over two decades, struck down restrictions in force in 13 states and means all 50 states must recognize same-sex unions. The court was considering a challenge to laws in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples. The ruling in the case, Obergefell v. Hodges, follows a rapid shift in legal and societal acceptance of same-sex marriage over the past decade and reflects more generally how gay rights in the course of a generation have moved to the front line from the fringes of a national debate over the meaning of equality.

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Gay-rights supporters cheered Friday’s ruling, both in front of the Supreme Court and in impromptu celebrations nationwide At the White House, President Barack Obama described the ruling as a “thunderbolt” of justice that accelerated a march toward equality that more typically progresses as “two steps forward, one step back.” The ruling should “give us hope that on the many issues with which we grapple, often painfully, real change is possible,” he said.

He placed a call to the lead plaintiff, James Obergefell, to offer congratulations. Mr. Obergefell, in an interview outside the Supreme Court after the call, said his first thought when he heard the decision was: “Wow, I really am more fully an American today.” Officials in states with bans began dropping prohibitions Friday, and couples moved immediately to obtain marriage licenses. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, said state officials “have been directed to immediately alter any policies necessary to implement the decision from the Supreme Court.” Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, a Republican, said his office was ready to work to implement the ruling, though he said the decision “takes from the states and their citizens the longstanding authority to vote and decide what marriage means.” In some parts of the Deep South, including Mississippi and Alabama, some officials took more time to absorb the holding, with marriages being recognized in a piecemeal fashion. Advocates said that additional battles loom. Unlike discrimination based on race, religion or sex, no federal law forbids bias against gays and lesbians. About half the states and some local governments have enacted some protections against such discrimination. Future legal contests may determine whether tax-exempt religious schools can reject gays and lesbians, and whether private businesses can refuse them service because they believe their religion compels such exclusion. The ruling was derided by religious conservatives, who have begun to reframe their opposition from enforcing the prevailing morality to conscientious objection to what have become the majority’s values. “We will denounce this practice in our services, we will not teach it in our schools, we will refuse to officiate at this type of wedding, and we will not accept any encroachments on our First Amendment rights,” said Rick Scarborough, a Baptist pastor and president of Vision America Action, an advocacy group in

Texas. Supreme Court Decisions of 2014-2015 Twenty-one of the biggest cases the court has decided or will decide this year.

Republicans running for president in 2016, in primaries that will be made up in large part of religious conservative voters, faulted the ruling. But while some vowed to keep fighting on the issue, others

signaled it was time to move on. “I believe the Supreme Court should have allowed the states to make this decision,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “I also believe that we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments.” Same-sex marriage as recently as a decade ago was widely opposed by a firm majority of Americans, and in the wake of Massachusetts’ move in 2003 to recognize the practice, many states amended their own constitutions to prohibit it. States’ constitutional bans began to fall after the 2013 Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Windsor, written by Justice Kennedy, which invalidated provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. At the same time, public acceptance of same-sex marriage has grown rapidly: A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this past week found some 57% of Americans wanted the court to rule the way it did. Justice Kennedy, as he has in prior decisions invoking due process and equal protection under the Constitution, spoke in sweeping terms that laid out his conception of individual dignity. “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 Evolution of Gay Unions See how marriage laws evolved since 1996 by region

something greater than once they were,” he wrote. The 14 same-sex couples and two surviving partners who brought the challenge hope “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.” Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito each filed dissents. “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, joined by Justices Scalia and Thomas. “But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.” Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, used more scathing language. The majority had strong-armed its personal values into the Constitution, executing a “judicial putsch,” he wrote, using a German term for coup. The plaintiffs argued the Constitution entitles them to unions on the same terms as heterosexuals, and that state restrictions hurt them financially and demean their dignity by denying their unions legal recognition. The four states had argued the courts should defer to the political process, leaving the decision of whether to recognize same-sex unions to the legislatures of each state. They contended that states were justified in limiting marriage to heterosexuals

because biologically only they can produce children.

Supreme Court Backs Gay Marriage » Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage gather outside the court

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The crowd celebrates outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after hearing the

Justice Kennedy’s opinion, while rejecting the states’ argument, acknowledged that “democracy is the appropriate process for change.” Outweighing that preference, he said, was the harm marriage bans inflicted on the plaintiffs while the national debate continued. Their “stories make clear the urgency of the issue they present to the court,” he wrote, citing Mr. Obergefell, whom Ohio wouldn’t list on his spouse’s death certificate, and other plaintiffs who faced what Justice Kennedy said were a raft of indignities and disadvantages. The court’s decisions on gay rights have shifted dramatically over 20 years, driven by the opinions of Justice Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee from Sacramento, Calif. In 1996, a Kennedy opinion struck down a Colorado voter initiative that prohibited state and local government from protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination. A 2003 Kennedy opinion found sodomy laws unconstitutional, overruling the court’s own 1986 decision that upheld them. And in 2013, Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion requiring federal recognition of same-sex marriages

—while explicitly leaving unanswered the question of whether states themselves must authorize the institution. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Justice Kennedy’s 28-page opinion in full, none offering a concurrence. —Brent Kendall and Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this article. Write to Jess Bravin at [email protected] Corrections & Amplifications: Ahead of the ruling, same-sex marriage was legal in 37 states and the District of Columbia—a number that includes Alabama. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated 36 states and the District of Columbia.

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