The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down two landmark same-sex marriage rulings, one striking down a major provision of the federal Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the other leaving uncertain the fate of California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that prohibits gay and lesbian couples in the state from marrying.
In addition, the court ruled, DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of “equal liberty.” Kennedy’s majority opinion states that DOMA “singles out” legally married same-sex couples and imposes a second-class status on them even though their own states have accorded them full marriage rights. Furthermore, Kennedy writes, DOMA advances no government policy or purpose that justifies its discriminatory impact. “The statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those who the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in person hood and dignity.”
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