US Supreme Court clears gay weddings

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Washington: In a huge victory for gays and lesbians, the US Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a law denying federal benefits to homosexual couples and cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California.
 
Cheers rang out among the estimated 1,000 suppo-rters of same-sex marriage who gathered outside the High Court in Washington for the historic rulings, which will have a major impact on the US society.
 
In a 5-4 decision, the court first struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal benefits to married gay and lesbian couples by strictly defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
 
“DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment” of the Constitution, said the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. President Barack Obama hailed the DOMA decision, saying in a statement, “We are a people who declared that we are all created equal — and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
 

The court also said a case on Proposition 8, a 2008 voter initiative in Califor-nia that prohibited same-sex marriage in the nation’s most populous state, was not properly before them.
 
That decision — which indicated gay marriages would likely resume in California — enabled the justices to dodge the thornier issue of whether same-sex marriage is a constitutional right throughout the United States.
 
Twelve US states plus the District of Columbia now recognize same-sex marriage, but about 30 states have decreed that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman.  
 
DOMA had earlier denied married gay and lesbians a raft of federal benefits that straight couples take for granted, from tax breaks to  hospital visits and the ability to sponsor a spouse for a residence visa. 
 
Prior to Wednesday’s rulings, law professor David Cruz of the University of Southern California said it was unlikely the Supreme Court would adopt a broad ruling that struck down all bans on same-sex marriage across the nation.
 
“Seeing all same-sex couples being able to get married in every state is probably not going to happen immediately ... because of the tradition in the court: the Justices often move in steps, they rule incrementally,” he said. 
 
Obama is the first serving US president ever to publicly support gay couples’ marriage.