Kennedy the swing vote in 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: In a monumental ruling Friday morning, the Supreme Court held 5-4 that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees the right of same-sex couples to marry under state law.
The landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges means gay marriage will become legal in all 50 states.
“This ruling is a victory for America,” said President Obama, the first sitting commander-in-chief to support gay marriage. “This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts. When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free.”
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who provided the swing vote, is now being hailed as a new icon for LGBT rights. A conservative who was appointed by Republican Ronald Reagan, the libertarian Kennedy has cast the swing vote numerous times during his tenure on the Supreme Court.
The closing of the ruling authored by Justice Kennedy, who has now authored all four of the court’s major gay rights rulings, says:
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.
Antonin Scalia was one of the justices who dissented, with the ultra-right wing conservative claiming that the decision shows the court is a “threat to American democracy.”
He went on to crassly, somewhat incoherently state that he views marriage as neither a right nor freedom:
“‘The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality,'” he quoted from the majority opinion before adding his own, scathing remarks:
Really? Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie. Expression, sure enough, is a freedom, but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that that happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say.) Rights, we are told, can “rise . . . from a better informed understanding of how constitutional imperatives define a liberty that remains urgent in our own era.”24 (Huh? How can a better informed understanding of how constitutional imperatives [whatever that means] define [whatever that means] an urgent liberty [never mind], give birth to a right?)
Gay marriage is gaining acceptance in other Western nations, as well. Last month in Ireland, voters backed same-sex marriage by a landslide in a referendum that marked a dramatic social shift in the traditionally Roman Catholic country, according to Reuters.
Ireland followed the lead of several Western European countries which include Britain, France, and Spain in allowing gay marriage, which is also legal in South Africa, Brazil, and Canada. However, homosexuality remains taboo and often illegal in many parts of Africa and Asia, including India.