With two landmark decisions, the Supreme Court struck down the 1996 law blocking federal recognition of gay marriage, and it allowed gay marriage to resume in California by declining to decide a separate case, NBC News reported.
A divided Supreme Court struck down a key part of congressional law that denies to legally married same-sex couples the same benefits provided to heterosexual couples, CNN reported. The Defense of Marriage Act (or DOMA) defines marriage as only between a man and a woman. The vote was 5-4 on Wednesday.
"Although Congress has great authority to design laws to fit its own conception of sound national policy, it cannot deny the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment," Justice Anthony Kennedy said.
The justices struck down a federal law barring the recognition of same-sex marriage, ruling the law violates the rights of gays and lesbians and intrudes into states' right to define and regulate marriage. The court also dismissed a case involving California's gay marriage ban, ruling that supporters of the ban (DOMA) did not have the legal standing, or right to appeal a lower court's decision striking down Proposition 8 as discriminatory, CNN reported.
The decision clears the way for gay marriage to again be legal in California, even though the justices did not address the broader legal argument that gay people have a fundamental right to marriage.
These decisions have thrown the debate concerning gay marriage back to the states' discretion.
"The underlying message, I think, is that these are marriages, these are relationships, that are worthy of equal respect," said Tom Goldstein, the publisher of SCOTUSblog and a Supreme Court analyst for NBC News. "It really does send a powerful message to the country that this is something that deserves fair treatment.
President Barack Obama placed a phone call from Air Force One to the two gay couples who had challenged Proposition 8 case. He told them, "We're proud of you guys."
Under the Defense of Marriage Act, gay couples who are legally married in their states were not considered married in the eyes of the federal government, and were ineligible for the federal benefits that come with marriage.
"Today is truly a historic day in the march toward LGBT equality," New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrote on her Facebook page. "I'm thrilled that the Supreme Court has overturned the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which enshrined discrimination into federal law. Now that the Court has done its job, it's time for Congress to do ours by passing The Respect For Marriage Act and repealing DOMA in full once and for all..."
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