Earlier this morning, the US Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional! In a 5-4 ruling, the court found the law “a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.”
Sadly, the court’s ruling failed to establish marriage as a constitutionally-protected right but it did strike down a key section of DOMA that denied federal recognition to legally married same-sex couples.
As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his opinion joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan,
“the federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity. 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.”
In a concerted effort to remain on the wrong side history, Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito all dissented this historic ruling.