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Same-sex marriage

Supreme Court settles issue of basic rights for all Americans

The only disappointing thing about the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday granting same-sex couples nationwide the right to marry – and forbidding states from restricting the unions – is that the decision was split, with four justices dissenting. The five justices in the court’s majority agreed with the plaintiffs’ – and a growing majority of Americans’ – central premise that the right to marry is fundamental and should not be denied to anyone based on their sexual orientation.

Under the 14th Amendment, that equal protection cannot be usurped by state laws forbidding gays and lesbians from marrying. The ruling culminates decades of struggle for recognition and equality, ending the deeply discriminatory and painful practice of segregating same-sex couples from their heterosexual counterparts in matrimony. It is a decisive victory for the United States.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a swing vote on the court, wrote the majority opinion in Obergefell vs. Hodges, basing it on the simple fact that the 14th Amendment’s primary function is to protect all Americans equally. “The fundamental liberties protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause extend to certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy, including intimate choices defining personal identity and beliefs,” Kennedy wrote. The opinion traces the legal and social history of marriage, citing its simultaneous evolution and foundational function in American culture and tradition. “The history of marriage is one of both continuity and change. Changes, such as the decline of arranged marriages ... have worked deep transformations in the structure of marriage, affecting aspects of marriage once viewed as essential. These new insights have strengthened, not weakened, the institution. Changed understandings of marriage are characteristic of a nation where new dimensions of freedom become apparent to new generations.”

The Supreme Court’s finding is based on a clean, logical reading of the Constitution, as well as a romantic interpretation of the institute of marriage. The first prong of the argument indicates just how landmark a social swing the notion of homosexuality, let alone same-sex marriage, has taken in the United States during the last 50 years. What was once marginalized or worse by society at large has now gained legitimacy – in courts of law and public opinion. A recent Gallup poll shows that 60 percent of Americans favor extending traditional marriage rights to same-sex couples. That such a case would travel to the Supreme Court would have been unheard of 30 years ago, despite the relatively simple legal matter at its crux: All Americans are granted equal protection under the law, whatever it may be.

The court’s thoughts on marriage beyond its legal implications, however, border on the idealistic. “Marriage is essential to our most profound hopes and aspirations,” Kennedy wrote. “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.”

Ideally, yes, and would that all marriages produced such sublime results. Nevertheless, when two people seek to commit to a lifelong relationship, and all the privileges and responsibility such a union entails, no state should be in the position of denying them that journey. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court put the discussion to rest and in doing so, changed the country for the better.



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