Sunday, June 28, 2015
On Friday, the United States Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in all fifty US states. More than 30 states already permitted gay marriage. The Supreme Court ruled by a five-to-four vote that bans on same-sex marriage were not constitutional. The majority decision was delivered by Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Same-sex marriage was banned in more than a dozen states. Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Kagan, Breyer and Kennedy voted in favour while Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas voted against.
Kennedy’s decision brought tears to the eyes of some lawyers in the courtroom. However, Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissenting opinion derided the majority decision: “The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic. […] Of course, the opinion’s showy profundities are often profoundly incoherent.”
When the decision was made, police allowed people outside the court to wave the rainbow flag on the court plaza. Demonstrators outside the court chanted “Love has won”. This decision made the United States the 21st country to legalise same-sex marriage.
President Barack Obama responded to the decision: “Today we can say, in no uncertain terms, that we have made our union a little more perfect.”
After this decision, Facebook introduced a new tool to add rainbow coloring to one’s profile picture to celebrate this victory. Mark Zuckerberg posted on Facebook “I’m so happy for all of my friends and everyone in our community who can finally celebrate their love and be recognized as equal couples under the law”.
Later, companies like Google, Yahoo, Tumblr and Vine tweeted with hashtag “#LoveWins”. That night, the White House had the rainbow projected on the outside of the building to celebrate the decision.