Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Opinions recap: Giant step for gay marriage

The best thing to read about today's gay marriage rulings is of course SCOTUSblog, Opinions recap: Giant step for gay marriage "Giving tens of thousands of already married same-sex couples in a growing list of states fully equal access to all benefits that the federal  government provides for those who are wed, a closely divided Supreme Court struck down a 1996 law on the theory that it was aggressively anti-gay.  And, by a different combination of Justices, the Court came close to assuring that millions of still-single gays and lesbians in California will very soon be able to legally marry.

Even while the Court firmly insisted that it was not saying anything about the authority of states to deny marital rights to same-sex partners — as thirty states still do — the obvious practical and political impact of two five-to-four decisions was to advance the cause of equality for homosexuals everywhere in the country, perhaps further than it had ever gone in more than four decades of gay activism."

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