Supreme Court Rules 5-4 Gay Marriage a Constitutional Right Bans Struck Down

By Katie Pavlich The Supreme Court has struck down state bans on gay marriage and has ruled 5-4 same sex marriage is a constitutional right. Same sex couples can now marry in all 50 states. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion and Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the dissent.

Per Kennedy J.: 14th Amend. requires granting right to SSM and recognizing SSMs performed elsewhere. SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 26 2015    

From the opinion: 

Held: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State.

(4) The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty. Same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry. The State laws challenged by the petitioners in these cases are held invalid to the extent they exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.

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 be come 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 civilizations oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right Kennedy wrote in the opinion. The ancient origins of marriage confirm its centrality but it has not stood in isolation from developments in law and society. The history of marriage is one of both continuity and change. That institutioneven as confined to opposite-sex relationshas evolved over time Kennedy wrote. Under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment no State shall deprive any person of life liberty or property without due process of law." The fundamental liberties protected by this Clause include most of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights. See Duncan v. Louisiana 391 U. S. 145 147149 (1968). In addition these liberties extend to certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy including intimate choices that define personal identity and beliefs.
 
This analysis compels the conclusion that same-sex couples may exercise the right to marry. The four principles and traditions to be discussed demonstrate that the reasons marriage is fundamental under the Constitution apply with equal force to same-sex couples. A first premise of the Courts relevant precedents is that the right to personal choice regarding marriage is inherent in the concept of individual autonomy Kennedy continued. Excluding same-sex couples from marriage thus conflicts with a central premise of the right to marry. Without the recognition stability and predictability marriage offers their children suffer the stigma of knowing their families are somehow lesser. They also suffer the significant material costs of being raised by unmarried parents relegated through no fault of their own to a more difficult and uncertain family life. The marriage laws at issue here thus harm and humiliate the children of same-sex couples.
 
The question that now remains is how the Supreme Court will balance religious freedom which is protected under the First Amendment with this ruling on future cases. Kennedy touched on this point in his opinion.  Finally it must be emphasized that religions and those who adhere to religious doctrines may continue to advocate with utmost sincere conviction that by divine precepts same-sex marriage should not be condoned. The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered. The same is true of those who oppose same-sex marriage for other reasons. In turn those who believe allowing same-sex marriage is proper or indeed essential whether as a matter of religious conviction or secular belief may engage those who disagree with their view in an open and searching debate. The Constitution however does not permit the State to bar same-sex couples from marriage on the same terms as accorded to couples of the opposite sex he said. 

The dissent from Roberts Scalia and Thomas is searing much like Scalias dissent from yesterday on the Obamacare subsidy ruling.