Same-Sex Marriage is Legal in California Again

By Jessica Mullins and Joan Dentler  

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Wednesday morning announcement that they won’t make a standing on California’s Prop 8, a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, has paved the way for same-sex marriage to resume in California.

The standing, which emphasizes that the Prop. 8 case shouldn’t have been brought to the Supreme Court, means a lower-court decision ruling Prop 8 unconstitutional stands, according to NBC Bay Area. 

Newsom said he was celebrating the crowds’ devotion to marriage equality.

“I want to thank you for celebrating this remarkable journey we’re still on,” Newsom said. “Like any journey, it’s not linear. It’s complex and there are good and bay days, but it’s a worthy journey we’re on.”

The Supreme Court also ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevented gay marriages from being legally recognized by the federal government, is unconstitutional, according to the Huffington Post.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5-4 decision, striking down DOMA on the grounds that it violates the Fifth Amendment, depriving a class of persons from their equal liberty. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was in the minority, as were Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

“The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Justice Kennedy wrote. 

“By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”