Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage nationwide

(Image credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

last updated 26 June 2015

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Friday that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. In the historic ruling for gay rights, the court declared that same-sex couples have the right to marry in all 50 states, and that states can no longer ban gay couples from marrying. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court's four liberal justices. Kennedy wrote:

"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."

This is the biggest ruling the court has made on marriage since the 1967 case of Loving v. Virginia that struck down state laws banning interracial marriages. The ruling comes exactly 46 years after the historic Stonewall Inn riots that effectively launched the gay rights movement and just a day after another huge Supreme Court win for the left, with Chief Justice John Roberts, Kennedy, and the four liberal justices voting to uphold the federal subsidies at the heart of ObamaCare.