No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family.
In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage.
Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions.
They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.
It is so ordered.
United States Supreme Court judgment June 26th 2015 Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al.
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Organizing For Action – the community organizing project that advocates for Obama and runs the https://www.barackobama.com/ website – sent an email yesterday with a subject field that stopped me in my tracks : “It’s just called marriage now”.
The SCOTUS judgment is a great testament to the work and dedication of so many people fighting for equality since the dark days of Anita Bryant and the Briggs Initiative.
The death of a Justice should be followed by the nomination of a replacement by the President and confirmation hearing/s in Congress, but Congress is refusing until after the Presidential election, so a judicial issue becomes a political issue. Shame.