Justices rule 5-4 to strike down state bans of same-sex marriage
Read the majority opinion; read the four dissents
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic ruling
A day of elation, but decades of activism
Guardian Witness: send in your wedding photos
3.21pm ET
Complete with a new form that omits the terminology of “husband” and “wife” or “bride” and “groom”.
The new marriage licenses for South Dakota. "Bride" and "groom" replaced with "Spouse A" and "Spouse B." pic.twitter.com/y2YfOejzvd
3.08pm ET
My colleague Nicky Woolf (@nickywoolf) is among hundreds of people celebrating and tippling at the historic Stonewall Inn in New York’s West Village.
Stacy Lentz is one of Stonewall’s owners. “People are going to party in the streets,” she told the Guardian. “It’s an incredible day for us and for LGBT people around the word. America finally has marriage equality!”
Lentz said she cried “tears of joy” when she heard the news.
Related: 'It was all worth fighting for': Stonewall revels in US gay marriage victory
2.56pm ET
“Today is the day that everything starts,” DayLynn Contreras, a Texas woman engaged for two years to her partner Angelica Perez, has told my colleague Lauren Gambino (@lgamgam), who reports on the young couple’s reaction to the day’s news.
Contreras and Perez said the ruling means they can finally marry in the state where they were born and raised.
We decided to call it off and wait. Why should we have to buy plane tickets and get hotels and travel to get married when we she just be able to get married where we live? Now we can get married in our home, in our state where we were born, where we were raised.”
For the couple, this was not always easy. They used to live in Dallas, where they said holding hands attracted disapproving glances. They live in Austin now, Texas’ liberal bastion, and said the people there are much more accepting of their relationship.
“Here we don’t get stares or looks, or rude remarks or being treated badly at restaurants,” Contreras said. “Since we live here, we can just tell there is such a different tension walking around in Texas as a lesbian couple than in California.”
2.44pm ET
My colleague Amanda Holpuch is landing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, another of the states that is complying with the supreme court’s ruling and issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
Marriage equality is now the law of this land (Michigan) pic.twitter.com/Y6gKhuGDKR
2.36pm ET
The ACLU, which spearheaded many of the court battles to legalize same-sex marriage and helped represent Jim Obergefell, has released a statement from its executive director saying the decision “has been 50 years in the making”.
“Today’s historic victory comes on the backs of same-sex couples and advocates who have worked for decades to dismantle harmful stereotypes and unjust laws in the quest for equal treatment,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and HIV Project.
2.26pm ET
2.12pm ET
Louisiana attorney general Buddy Caldwell has released a statement saying that the decision “overturns the will of the people of Louisiana” and that “nothing in today’s decision makes the court’s order effective immediately”.
“This Supreme Court decision overturns the will of the people of Louisiana, and it takes away a right that should have been left to the states. Louisiana voters decided overwhelmingly to place in our constitution an amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. I fought to uphold Louisiana’s definition of traditional marriage, and I was the first attorney general in the nation to be successful at the federal court level.
“I am extremely disappointed by this decision. It fails to respect traditional marriage as defined by Louisiana voters, and is yet another example of the federal government intrusion into what should be a state issue.”
We simply want to inform our citizens of the procedure that takes effect after this ruling. The Supreme Court decision is the law of the land and we do not dispute that. When the 5th Circuit lifts the stay of Judge Reeves’ order, it will become effective in Mississippi and circuit clerks will be required to issue same-sex marriage licenses.”
2.03pm ET
Bourbon Street “was still sleeping off a hangover” when it heard the news from Washington, Tom Dart reports New Orleans, but the its proud gay community was ready to celebrate in earnest nonetheless.
Like every morning, Bourbon Street was still sleeping off a hangover when the decision came through. But half-a-dozen people were in Cafe Lafitte in Exile, one of the best-known of the cluster of gay bars in the heart of the French Quarter. Open 24/7, it claims to be the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the US and was a haunt of Tennessee Williams.
A small rainbow-coloured poster on the door declared: “Victory, Marriage Equality comes to America. Let’s celebrate Happy Hour all day!!!!”
He was in Lafitte with his fiance, Darron Newman, a 47-year-old who works in a veterinary office. They got engaged a year ago when they felt that the nation was trending towards marriage equality, but state lawmakers remained hostile amid pressure from religious conservative groups.
In an indicator of the prevailing local political attitude, last year the Louisiana House of Representatives overwhelmingly refused to remove the state’s anti-sodomy statute, even though it is legally unenforceable and was declared unconstitutional by the US supreme court in 2003.
But when Rolston heard Friday’s news, he got down on one knee again in the hallway of their house in Marigny, confident this time that their engagement was now more than a symbolic gesture in Louisiana. “He took my ring off, proposed and gave it right back,” Newman said.
1.58pm ET
When he did address the nation, Obama praised “the countless acts of courage” made by millions of Americans over decades.
1.50pm ET
Barack Obama personally called Jim Obergefell earlier today to congratulate him on his victory in the supreme court, a moment captured on live television not all that long before the president addressed the nation as a whole.
1.45pm ET
Not all conservatives oppose legalizing same-sex marriage – in fact the split on social issues like gay marriage has become increasingly pronounced within the party, as icons like Dick Cheney and David Koch have voiced their support for legalization.
Senator Rob Portman, who announced his support for same-sex marriage after his son came out of the closet, released a statement today hailing the decision even if he would have preferred the states to have made it.
“The issue of marriage equality is one that divides people of principle, and I understand that. In 2013, I decided to support marriage equality after I came to understand this issue better in the context of my own family. I can’t help but view today’s Supreme Court decision through that same lens. And as a father, I welcome today’s decision.
“As I have said before, I would have preferred for this issue to be resolved by the democratic process in the states because I think you build a more lasting consensus that way. Now the Court has reached its decision, I hope we can move past the division and polarization the issue has caused.”
1.39pm ET
Happy couples, in Georgia…
First same-sex marriage in Fulton County #Georgia. #wsbtv pic.twitter.com/Xu1PAavApU
The second same-sex couple to legally wed at Fulton County courthouse fills out paperwork while choking up. #gapol pic.twitter.com/FwRXvn7Q9F
First same-sex marriage license just issued in Arkansas post the SCOTUS ruling. pic.twitter.com/dndR0ROy1u
This couple will be first same-sex marriage in Davidson county. pic.twitter.com/KdPBwAnIjF
1.25pm ET
Although the United States now becomes the 20th nation with legal same-sex marriage, it stands in stark contrast to much of the rest of the world, my colleague Saeed Kamali Dehghan (@SaeedKD) reports from London.
Fewer than 1 billion of the world’s population live in countries where same-sex marriage or civil unions are recognised, compared to almost 2.8 billion living in countries which criminalise gay people and impose severe punishments on homosexuality, such as imprisonment, lashings and even death sentences.
LGBT people are also convenient scapegoats for embattled leaders, who are trying to rally support from more conservative sectors of their society. Whether it’s Uganda, Nigeria or Russia, the decision to scapegoat the LGBT community is an outcome of serious challenges to the regime, for widespread corruption or abusive authoritarianism.”
Related: Global LGBT community still gripped by homophobic state-sponsored violence
1.11pm ET
“Love has won,” is the chorus being chanted outside the supreme court, where my colleague Sabrina Siddiqui (@sabrinasiddiqui) has spoken to California representative Mark Takano, a gay member of Congress who earlier today tweeted: “YAS SCOTUS YAAASS”.
Takano described being at the scene as both “profound and pointed.”
“I feel like the Supreme Court has just thrown a huge wedding bouquet to LGBT people all across the country and couples are going to be rushing to catch that bouquet,” Takano told the Guardian. “This was a huge, huge step forward – politically and legally.”
Judd Proctor, a 65-year-old resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, said he never thought he would live to see the day that gay marriage would be a constitutional right.
“When I first met my partner 20 years ago, I never thought there would be marriage. We had a commitment ceremony,” Proctor said.
1.06pm ET
University of Denver law professor Nancy Leong observes a rather dark implication of justice Kennedy’s otherwise very love-affirming majority opinion.
Not to take away from #marriageequality, but could do w/o implication that unmarried=eternally lonely & inferior. pic.twitter.com/Fv3ve5sa96
1.02pm ET
In case you were hankering for a rendition of the national anthem by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, here it is, courtesy my colleague Sabrina Siddiqui (@sabrinasiddiqui) in Washington.
12.59pm ET
An octogenarian couple are getting married in Dallas, the county’s first license to a same-sex couple, with NPR and Dallas News reporters on hand. They’ve been together for 55 years.
#Dallas couple in their 80s answering ques & getting 1st marriage license since #SCOTUSMarriage ruling. @keranews pic.twitter.com/KCOzk6WxqY
Dallas County's first marriage ceremony just started. pic.twitter.com/a0BNKGpZy5
12.54pm ET
Florida attorney general Pam Bondi has announced that her state will issue same-sex marriage licenses, saying the court has “the final word” and “the court has spoken.”
“We have always sought finality on this important constitutional issue, and today the United States supreme court provided the clarity our state and country was [sic] seeking. Our country has vigorously debated the issue, with good people on all sides. Many on both sides feel strongly about the issue, having deeply and sincere beliefs. Legal efforts were not about personal beliefs or opinions, but rather, the rule of law. The United States supreme court has the final word on interpreting the constitution and the court has spoken.”
Breaking: After months long legal battle, the windows are finally open at the Mobile County Probate Court! #alpolitics #almarriage
Franklin county is now issuing marriage licenses! cc: @Emissourian #ShowMeMarriage http://t.co/bejgv2WmZa pic.twitter.com/stLoORbjcC
12.37pm ET
The marital-judicial chaos continues in Texas, where Dallas County has joined Travis County in saying it will issue same-sex marriage licenses whether the state attorney general likes it or not.
The Dallas News’ Melissa Repko quotes the clerk:
Dallas County Clerk John Warren said the Texas Attorney General's office "does not trump the highest court in the land."
12.34pm ET
Mississippi’s attorney general said clerks “cannot” issue same-sex marriage licenses “immediately”, the AP reports, but in practice it seems some counties may have started anyway.
From the Wall Street Journal’s Brent Kendall:
Lou Ellen Adams, the circuit court clerk in Hattiesburg, said she issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple not long after the high court’s decision, only to get a notice from the state attorney general a short time later saying the ruling wouldn’t take immediate effect in the state until some legal-procedural matters were resolved.
“I think the Supreme Court said for me to issue the license,” Ms. Adams said. “I know there are others coming.”
"I pronounce you married in the state of Mississippi" pic.twitter.com/ZDUKem0kiq
12.30pm ET
Icons of screen and stage are also joining the celebrations, spreading the love into Middle Earth and onto the Enterprise.
Congratulations, particularly to those who made the case for equality. So pleased to be celebrating @nycpride over the weekend. #LoveWins
When I checked Twitter this morning #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/RYsPJKx1F2
12.26pm ET
Roberta Kaplan, the attorney who won the landmark gay marriage decision Windsor v the United States in 2013, has told my colleague Steven Thrasher (@thrasherxy) she “can’t imagine this being a better decision.”
Is there any equivocation in today’s ruling, anything to be worried about short of full marriage equality? “There is nothing in it I am worried about. It states in no uncertain terms that gay people are fully protected in a manner of equality protected by the fifth and 14th amendments.
“And that’s what this movement has been fighting for now for decades, and for the 20 years I have been involved. This is the pinnacle of our success so far, and it is hard for me to see now that any court, anywhere, state or federal, could possibly tolerate discrimination against gay people on any basis.”
12.22pm ET
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued a long statement that suggests he will attempt to fight the legalization of gay marriage by asserting the “religious liberties” of clerks and officials – perhaps attempting a measure akin to North Carolina’s recent law that allows magistrates to opt out of issuing licenses for “religious objections”.
“Far from a victory for anyone, this is instead a dilution of marriage as a societal institution,” Paxton writes. He then says the decision is “yet another assault on the actual text of the US constitution” but that “no court, no law, no rule, and no words will change the simple truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
Judge Garcia has lifted his stay! Let the marriages begin in Texas! #LoveWins @EqualityTexas
12.09pm ET
Governor Bill Haslam has released a statement saying that his state will accede to the ruling, Tennessee’s ABC affiliate reports. Haslam’s statement reads:
“The people of Tennessee have recently voted clearly on this issue. The Supreme Court has overturned that vote. We will comply with the decision and will ensure that our departments are able to do so as quickly as possible.”
12.01pm ET
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush has released a statement about the ruling, and a spokesperson has said that the former Florida governor agrees with dissenters that the ruling verges on “amending the constitution”.
“Guided by my faith, I believe in traditional marriage. I believe the Supreme Court should have allowed the states to make this decision. I also believe that we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments.
“In a country as diverse as ours, good people who have opposing views should be able to live side by side. It is now crucial that as a country we protect religious freedom and the right of conscience and also not discriminate.”
"Governor Bush does not believe amending the Constitution is the right course," per spokeswoman Kristy Campbell re scotus ruling.
11.55am ET
The dominoes continue to fall, the Associated Press and Reuters report.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky governor instructs county clerks to issues marriage licenses to same sex couples
BREAKING: Arkansas begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
11.45am ET
Moments before his national remarks, Obama called Jim Obergefell outside the supreme court to relay his congratulations, which CNN was able to capture live. “I couldn’t be prouder of you,” the president said.
AMAZING. Obergefell gets call from @potus live on @cnn with @pamelabrowncnn #scotusmarriage https://t.co/3NuIl8Heb7
Small line now forming of people who want Obergefell to sign copy of #SCOTUS opinion
11.42am ET
11.40am ET
My colleague Nicky Woolf (@nickywoolf) has gone to the Stonewall Inn in New York, the gay bar – just named a historic monument – known for being one of the birthplaces of the gay rights movement.
There’s enough jubilation in the room that patrons are even sharing some (ironically) with justice Antonin Scalia.
Stonewall is open! The celebrations have begun. An ironic toast is drunk to Scalia. Whoops and cheers #SCOTUSmarriage pic.twitter.com/VUUWmP619t
Related: Stonewall Inn, gay rights icon, gets official New York landmark status
11.35am ET
The dominoes begin to fall around the nation as states accede to the supreme court ruling.
The state of Georgia is subject to the laws of the United States, and we will follow them.
Georgia's attorney general is telling state agencies and employees to "ensure that their practices conform to the current state of the law."
11.32am ET
“Soon as we heard the news we were obviously in tears,” a plaintiffs of a concurrent case has told my colleague Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch). He says he and his partner were “overcome with emotion because this is the most amazing event we could imagine.”
Randy Johnson, who is a plaintiff in the Kentucky case with his partner Paul Campion, said he still had goosebumps since the decision was announced.
The couple, who has been together for more than 23 years, decided to challenge Kentucky’s ban because their marriage in California is not recognized by their home state. This causes problems with how they are able to care for their family because they both were only able to adopt two of their four children.
11.27am ET
My colleague Sabrina Siddiqui is outside the courthouse, where the celebration continues.
Gay men's chorus of Washington DC singing national anthem outside Supreme Court steps pic.twitter.com/vud3h7eSUN
11.23am ET
Obama says the decision was not only a result of the supreme court, but “a consequence of the countless small acts of courage of millions of people across decades who stood up and came out, and talked to parents, parents who loved their children no matter what, folks who … [endured] taunts and stayed strong and came to believe in themselves and who they were.
“And [they] slowly made an entire country realize that love is love. What an extraordinary achievement, what a vindication of the belief that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. What a reminder of what Bobby Kennedy once said about how small actions can be like pebbles being thrown into a still lake, and ripples of hope cascade outwards and change the world.
11.20am ET
Barack Obama is speaking from the White House, declaring the decision “a victory for America”.
The nation was “founded on a bedrock principle, we are all created equal,” he says. The decision reflects “the realities of changing times” and “the never ending quest to ensure those words ring true for every single American”, he says.
11.12am ET
The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza notes that despite chief justice Robert’s strident denunciation of the court for what he describes as a overreach of its powers, he himself seems to have hinted toward more liberal personal views.
While not finding a Constitutional right for SSM, Roberts goes pretty far at hinting that he personally supports SSM as a social policy.
Double rainbows over the White House. #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/EYTxVjNv58
I now live in a nation that accepts gay marriage but here I am @ funeral of victim of a white supremacist #USdivided pic.twitter.com/PM05kuh3n8
11.06am ET
A chorus has started singing the Star Spangled Banner outside the courthouse, as Bloomberg’s Tom Taylor and the Wall Street Journal’s Isaac Stanley-Becker try to snap photos of the growing crowd.
View from #scotus plaza. pic.twitter.com/sMt6292ZxV
Crowd is ebullient after court decision validating gay marriage pic.twitter.com/VMSG63Vj5q
11.03am ET
In Texas, at least one county is already ready to move ahead and begin issuing marriage licenses, just over an hour after the court’s ruling.
“It’s a huge victory for freedom as well as for love,” said Chuck Smith, executive director of Equality Texas, told Tom Dart, reporting for the Guardian.
While delighted, Smith cautioned that there are many other battles to be fought for equality in Texas, where anti-LGBT discrimination in housing and the workplace is banned in big cities with non-discrimination ordinances but legal in many other places. “We will celebrate today; tomorrow we will go back to work,” Smith said.
However, though many Texans are eager to apply for marriage licenses immediately, it appears that some of the state’s politicians are keen to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, issued a statement on Thursday asking “all county clerks and justices of the peace [to] wait for direction and clarity from this office about the meaning of the court’s opinion and the rights of Texans under the law.”
BREAKING UPDATE: SCOTUS OKs gay marriage; Travis County to begin issuing licenses at 10:30 a.m.: http://t.co/uCb03Itiym #SSM #SCOTUSmarriage
11.01am ET
Looking back briefly to the opinion and dissents, it should be noted that four dissents is remarkable in and of itself, and that each of the conservative justices who disagreed with the ruling struck strong, even unusually harsh tones.
Chief justice John Roberts said his colleagues were “five lawyers” who had usurped powers of the American people, and Antonin Scalia said the decision degraded the very authority and status of the court – reducing its rulings to “the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie”.
WOW at the tone of this footnote in Scalia's dissent. pic.twitter.com/ob3mm9c1UD
10.53am ET
Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the case, is speaking on the steps of the supreme court.
The decision “affirms what millions across this country already know to be true in our hearts,” Obergefell says. “Our love is equal.”
10.47am ET
Conservatives are railing against the decision, declaring it “judicial activism” and with one radio host declaring today the day: he “saw Satan dancing with delight, the day the music died in the United States of America.”
Former senator Rick Santorum.
Today, 5 unelected judges redefined the foundational unit of society. Now it is the people's turn to speak #Marriage
This flawed, failed decision is an out-of-control act of unconstitutional judicial tyranny --> http://t.co/WMborH3TxB #SCOTUS
Once again the Bush appointed Supreme Court Justice John Roberts has let us down. Jeb pushed him hard! Remember!
10.41am ET
The White House has tweeted a gif that shows the remarkable pace of legalization for same-sex marriage in the United States: Massachusetts was the first state to legalize it in 2004; by 25 June 2015, 36 states had legalized gay marriage and Alabama was waging a protracted battle in the courts to keep its ban in place.
Starting 26 June 2015, all 50 states will be required to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
#LoveWins. pic.twitter.com/s5aiwIsFz8
10.38am ET
Rights groups are celebrating the decision around the US – the ACLU has posted a massive banner on its website declaring “we’ve won marriage equality nationwide!”
ACLU in NYC reacts to #SCOTUSMarriage decision. #lovewins pic.twitter.com/thnqyPLdxh
pic.twitter.com/V5HFbz6Emy
10.34am ET
In the majority opinion, Justice Kennedy emphatically knocked down arguments about procreation and the definition or protection of marriage as an institution.
Under the laws of the several States, some of marriage’s protections for children and families are material. But marriage also confers more profound benefits. By giving recognition and legal struc- ture to their parents’ relationship, marriage allows children “to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives.”
Decisions about whether to marry and raise children are based on many personal, romantic, and practical considerations; and it is unrealistic to conclude that an opposite-sex couple would choose not to marry simply because same-sex couples may do so.
(“[I]t is wholly illogical to believe that state recognition of the love and commitment between same-sex couples will alter the most intimate and personal decisions of opposite-sex couples”). The respondents have not shown a foundation for the conclusion that allowing same-sex marriage will cause the harmful outcomes [they say it will].
10.28am ET
Democrats, including two nominees for president, are hailing the decision with full-throated exclamations.
Proud. pic.twitter.com/9J44PCYeuQ
Reminded of Will and his moms on the day we passed marriage equality in MD. There’s no greater human right than love. pic.twitter.com/xg5X0HhP2j
SCOTUS has unequivocally affirmed that equal justice means marriage equality for LGBT Americans! http://t.co/wWMh2H7Jns #LoveCantWait
10.26am ET
My colleague Steven Thrasher is in Buffalo, New York, with Kitty Lambert-Rudd, who with Cheryl Rudd were the first same-sex couple married in New York state in 2011.
“I am over the moon!” Lambert-Rudd said. “I remember, one of the first letters I ever wrote, was to a local Assemblyman. I told him I was 11th generation American citizen, and still not having the same rights as my siblings did. This is unbelievably awesome! Just awesome! Great when New York got marriage, there was always this gray cloud over it, because you knew you had something that other people didn’t. And you knew what that was like.”
Tonight, the Lambert-Rudds have “planned for a big party in front in El Museo gallery,” on the street in Buffalo. “It’s a potluck, and everyone is welcome, and we’re just going to party until they send us all home!”
10.21am ET
Chief Justice John Roberts is reading his dissent from the bench, which the great Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSBlog says is the first time he’s ever done such a thing. Some nonconsecutive excerpts from his dissent, which essentially argues that this was a matter for the states to sort out, and not for judges to decide:
“This Court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us. Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be.”
10.15am ET
The last portion of Kennedy’s historic majority opinion affirming the nationwide right to gay 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. 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.
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
10.11am ET
Bloomberg’s Tom Taylor is in the court (in the area where they allow cellphones).
Kennedy from bench: "Until recent decades few people have even though of the concept of same-sex marriage." #SSM #SCOTUS
Kennedy from bench: "History of marriage is one of both continuity and change." #SCOTUS #SSM
10.09am ET
Justice Anthony Kennedy has written the historic majority opinion that the 14th amendment guarantees a right for same-sex couples to marry.
Each of his conservative colleagues, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, has written a dissent.
From their beginning to their most recent page, the annals of human history reveal the transcendent importance of marriage. The lifelong union of a man and a woman always has promised nobility and dignity to all persons, without regard to their station in life. Marriage is sacred to those who live by their religions and offers unique fulfillment to those who find meaning in the secular realm. Its dynamic allows two people to find a life that could not be found alone, for a marriage becomes greater than just the two persons. Rising from the most basic human needs, marriage is essential to our most profound hopes and aspirations.
It is now clear that the challenged laws burden the liberty of same-sex couples, and it must be further acknowledged that they abridge central precepts of equality … Especially against a long history of disapproval of their relationships, this denial to same-sex couples of the right to marry works a grave and continuing harm. The imposition of this disability on gays and lesbians serves to disrespect and subordinate them. And the Equal Protection Clause, like the Due Process Clause, prohibits this unjustified infringement of the fundamental right to marry.”
10.02am ET
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the supreme court’s ruling that the constitution guarantees a right for same-sex couples to marry, a decision that has made gay marriage legal in all 50 states.
The court ruled 5-4 that the constitution requires a state to license a marriage between same-sex couples. Each of the dissenting justices wrote a dissent.
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