A Day For Equality, as Defined By The Federal Government

Two landmark decisions were made today. The Supreme Court struck down the 1996 law blocking federal recognition of gay marriage, and it allowed gay marriage to resume in California, ruling against Prop 8, by declining to decide a separate case.

The court invalidated the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal benefits to gay couples who are legally married in their states, including Social Security survivor benefits, immigration rights and family leave. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in a 5-4 decision, said that the act wrote inequality into federal law and violated the Fifth Amendment’s protection of equal liberty.

In the second case also 5-4, the court said that it could not rule on a challenge to Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage in California passed by voters there in 2008. The court did not rule on the constitutionality of gay marriage, but the effect of the decision will be to allow same-sex marriage to resume there.

The decisions, released minutes apart, were met by jubilant cheers outside the Supreme Court and City Hall in San Francisco, where crowds of gay-marriage supporters were gathered and waved rainbow banners and flags bearing symbols of equality.