Same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a historic ruling that caps the biggest civil rights transformation in a half century.
Voting 5-4, the justices said states lack any legitimate reason to deprive gay couples of the freedom to marry. Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court’s four Democratic appointees in the majority, bringing gay weddings to the 14 states where they were still banned.
“No union is more profound than marriage for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family,” Kennedy wrote.
The ruling is a legal landmark, on par with the 1967 Supreme Court decision that guaranteed interracial couples the right to wed. It punctuates a period of sweeping change in the rights of gays, coming only 11 years after Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages.
A Tennessee school district has banned Roots, the author Alex Haley’s groundbreaking novel and one of...
Jose Espinoza, public information officer with the Laredo Police Department, told USA TODAY that just after...
Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina attorney whose case garnered national attention, was found guilty in 2023...
A convicted participant in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack who was pardoned at the...
