The final paragraph of Friday’s Supreme Court decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, quickly went viral for eloquently summing up the court’s decision to open the doors to same-sex marriage in all 50 states.
Justice Kennedy began the final paragraph saying “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 judgement of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered.”
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling means that the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage.
The decision won’t come into effect for at least three weeks however as the losing side is given time to ask for reconsideration.
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