Supporters of gay marriage are celebrating this morning after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, the law that kept the federal government from recognizing even legal same-sx marriages. The Court also decided not to make a decision on California’s Proposition 8, allowing gay marriage to resume in the state.
According to ABC News, the Court ruled 5-4 in favor of striking down DOMA. In the decision, the court ruled that “DOMA violates basic due process and equal protection principles applicable to the federal government. Under DOMA same sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways. By its great reach DOMA touches many aspects of married life from the mundane to the profound.”
Reuters reports that Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia wrote dissenting opinions.
In his dissent, Scalia wrote that the Court didn’t have the authority to decide on same-sex marriage and that it should be up to the democratic process, notes NBC News.
“We have no power to decide this case,” Scalia wrote. “And even if we did, we have no power under the Constitution to invalidate this democratically adopted legislation. The Court’s errors on both points spring forth from the same diseased root: an exalted conception of the role of this institution in America.”
Minutes after the Court handed down its ruling on DOMA, the Court said that it did could not rule on Proposition 8. In the meantime, same sex marriage will be allowed to resume in California.
According to The Los Angeles Times, the Court said that the defenders of Proposition 8 didn't have legal standing. “We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to. We decline to do so for the first time here,” the Court ruled.