By Scott Buttram
WASHINGTON D.C. –In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states must allow gay marriage, clearing the way for same sex marriage in Alabama.
A federal judge in Mobile had ruled earlier that Alabama’s ban was unconstitutional, but the ruling was on hold awaiting the high court’s decision, which came Friday morning.
Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the majority of justices including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in favor of gay marriage.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
Writing for the majority, Kennedy stated, ““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. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic. If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: ‘The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,’ I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.”