Washington: In a majority 5 to 4 decision, the US supreme court has ruled that the constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. Justice Anthony M Kennedy who wrote the majority opinion ends decades of litigation and activism, came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of same-sex marriage.
Immediately after the decision, same-sex couples in many of states where gay marriage had been banned headed to county clerks' offices for marriage licences as state officials issued statements saying they would respect the ruling.
President Barack Obama hailed the ruling as a milestone in American justice that arrived “like a thunderbolt.” “This ruling is a victory for America,” said Obama, the first sitting president 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.”
The ruling is the supreme court's most important expansion of marriage rights in the US since its landmark 1967 ruling in the case Loving v Virginia that struck down state laws barring interracial marriages. There were 13 state bans in place, while another state, Alabama, had contested a court ruling that lifted the ban there.
The ruling is the latest milestone in the gay rights movement in recent years. In 2010, Obama signed a law allowing gays to serve openly in the US military. In 2013, the high court ruled unconstitutional a 1996 US law that declared for the purposes of federal benefits marriage was defined as between one man and one woman.
Criticising the ruling, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said, “This flawed, failed decision is an out-of-control act of unconstitutional judicial tyranny.” Republican Rick Santorum lamented that five “unelected judges redefined the foundational unit of society.”
