In
a major victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck
down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married
gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage
in California.
Associated Press reports that the
justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One
decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has
kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and
pension benefits. The other was a technical ruling that
said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial
court’s declaration that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
That outcome probably will allow state officials to order the
resumption of same-sex weddings in the nation’s most populous state in
about a month. In neither case did the court make a
sweeping statement, either in favor of or against same-sex marriage. And
in a sign that neither victory was complete for gay rights, the high
court said nothing about the validity of gay marriage bans in California
and roughly three dozen other states. A separate provision of the
federal marriage law that allows a state to not recognize a same-sex
union from elsewhere remains in place.
President Barack Obama praised the
court’s ruling on the federal marriage act, which he labeled
“discrimination enshrined in law.” “It treated loving, committed gay and
lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people,” Obama said in
a statement. “The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country
is better off for it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment