The United States Supreme Court ruled today on two major gay marriage cases. In one, it found the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) unconstitutional as violative of the Fifth Amendment. In the other, it let stand on procedural grounds a lower court’s ruling finding California’s “Prop. 8” to be unconstitutional.
DOMA Case. DOMA was a federal law allowing the federal government to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages even if those marriages were entered into properly in states where gay marriage is legal. In essence, under DOMA the federal government did not have to allow same-sex married couples the same federal benefits allowed to opposite-sex married couples.
In the DOMA case, the Court found that defining marriage relationships is something to be left to the states–not to the federal government. Several states have legalized same-sex marriage. The Court ruled that once a state has decided to legalize same-sex marriage, there is no legitimate interest in treating a legally married same-sex couple from that state differently than a legally married heterosexual couple from that state.
Specifically, the Court held that “DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.” The effect of this ruling is that same-sex couples married in states where gay marriage is legal will be entitled to the same federal benefits as heterosexual married couples.
To read the complete opinion in the DOMA case, click here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf
Prop. 8 Case. In the Prop. 8 case, the Court ruled as narrowly as it possibly could to achieve the result of making gay marriage legal in California. In 2008, California voters passed Prop. 8, a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman. Prop. 8 was challenged in federal court, and the State of California refused to defend it. The Prop. 8 proponents stepped in and defended Prop. 8. The federal district court found Prop. 8 to be unconstitutional, and the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed. The Prop. 8 proponents then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Prop. 8 proponents lacked legal standing to appeal the federal district court’s ruling finding Prop. 8 to be unconstitutional. This ruling does not legalize gay marriage nationally. The Court did NOT rule that state laws and constitutional amendments passed by ballot initiative which limit marriage to one man and one woman are unconstitutional. It did not decide the case on its merits at all. The Supreme Court’s ruling is very narrow in its scope. It simply leaves undisturbed the lower federal court’s ruling that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional because the Prop. 8 proponents who brought the appeals did not have the legal authority to do so.
The effect of the Court’s ruling in the Prop. 8 case is that gay marriage will be legal in California very soon — as soon as the Ninth Circuit lifts the temporary stay it placed on gay marriages while the Supreme Court appeal was pending. To read the complete opinion in the Prop. 8 case, click here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-144_8ok0.pdf
What Does this Mean for Gay Marriage? The DOMA opinion makes it clear that it is up to the states to decide how to define marriage. Gradually more and more states will legalize gay marriage. The federal government will not disturb states’ rights to define marriage to include gay marriage.
But will the state laws and constitutional amendments prohibiting gay marriage ever be declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court? This is a tough question. The DOMA opinion says defining marriage should be left to the states, but there is plenty of language in that opinion indicating that the Justices in the majority disfavor treating same-sex couples differently than heterosexual couples. If a case like the Prop. 8 case were to get to the Supreme Court properly — without a procedural defect like that found in the Prop. 8 case — I believe there is a good chance the same Justices who found DOMA unconstitutional today would declare such state laws unconstitutional, thereby legalizing gay marriage nationally.
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