America endorses same se’x marriages as Obama tweets in support

In a landmark opinion, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that states
cannot ban same-s’ex marriages, handing ga’y rights advocates
their biggest victory yet.
The 5-4 ruling had Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority
with the four liberal justices. Each of the four conservative justices
wrote their own dissent.
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the
highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family,”
Kennedy wrote. “In forming a marital union, two people become
something greater than they once were.”
In a dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia blasted the Court’s “threat to
American democracy.”
“The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal
importance to me,” he wrote. “But what really astounds is the
hubris reflected in today’s judicial Putsch.”
The relevant cases were argued earlier this year. Attorney John
Bursch, serving as Michigan’s Special Assistant Attorney General,
defended four states’ bans on gay marriage before the Court,
arguing that the case was not about how to define marriage, but
rather about who gets to decide the question.
The case comes before the Supreme Court after several lower courts
have overturned state bans on gay marriage. A federal appeals
court had previously ruled in favour of the state bans, with Judge
Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals writing a
majority opinion in line with the rationale that the issue should be
decided through the political process, not the courts.
Fourteen couples and two widowers challenged the bans. Attorneys
Mary Bonauto and Doug Hallward-Driemeier presented their case
before the Court, arguing that the freedom to marry is a fundamental
right for all people and should not be left to popular vote.
Three years after President Barack Obama first voiced his support
for ga’y couples’ right to marry, his administration supported the
same se;x couples at the Supreme Court.