Coming off the heels of yesterday’s Affordable Care Act decision, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision today defending same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The historic decision offically rules that same-sex marriage bans in the 14 states with bans—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas—must be eliminated.
In his authored majority decision, Justice Anthony Kenedy anticipated conservative arguments against same-sex marriage’s morailty:
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.
In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito posited that the decision would infringe upon religious liberty and have rippling effects on other kinds of civil liberties:
Aside from undermining the political processes that protect our liberty, the majority’s decision threatens the religious liberty our Nation has long sought to protect.
President Obama is set to speak on the decision prior to delivering the euology at the memorial service for Clementa Pinckney, the reverend and state senator slain during last week’s racist massacre in Charleston.
Click here to read the Court’s full decision.