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U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a pair of rulings expanding homosexuals' right to marry, striking down Defense of the Marriage Act (DOMA), which bans same- sex married couples from receiving federal benefits, while declining to rule on another case concerning California's ban on same-sex marriage, opening the door for the state to legalize gay marriage.
The court ruled 5-4 to strike down DOMA, with Justice Anthony Kennedy providing the crucial swing vote. Liberal judges all voted in favor of striking down the law, while conservatives in the court opposed.
The court said the law violated equal protection by providing benefits to heterosexual couples while denying them to gay couples in 12 states plus the District of Columbia where same-sex couples may marry.
The case before the court was U.S. v. Windsor. Since President Barack Obama decided in 2011 that the Justice Department would not defend DOMA in court, the lawyer arguing for its constitutionality was retained by Republicans in the House of Representatives. The other side of the suit was Edith Windsor, a New York woman who faced 363,000 dollars in federal estate tax after her same-sex spouse died in 2009. If the couple were heterosexual, no tax would be collected, but under DOMA, the couple is treated as unmarried.
DOMA was signed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. It defined marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman, denying benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.
Moments after the court ruled on DOMA, it handed down ruling on another case concerning same-sex marriage, Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8, narrowly approved in a referendum in California in 2008.
The Justices declined to rule on Proposition 8's constitutionality, but said the case wasn't properly before them.
The two sides in the case were two Californian same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco arguing for the ban to be overturned, against ProtectMarriage.com, the group that put Proposition 8 on California's ballot.
ProtectMarriage.com took over the case after attorneys in California state have refused to defend it. The Supreme Court held that ProtectMarriage.com does not have the legal right to defend the law in court. As a result, it sent the case back to a lower court with instructions for it to dismiss the case, and thus opening the door for California to legalize gay marriage.
After the rulings, Obama, who on Wednesday morning embarked on a week-long visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, sent a twitter message from Air Force One saying "Today's DOMA ruling is a historic step forward for marriage equality."
