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 The court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution's guarantees of due
process and equal protection under the law mean that states cannot
ban same-sex marriages. With the landmark ruling, gay marriage
becomes legal in all 50 states.
Immediately after the decision, same-sex couples in many of the
states where gay marriage had been banned headed to county clerks'
offices for marriage licenses as officials in several states said
they would respect the ruling.
President Barack Obama, appearing in the White House Rose Garden,
hailed the ruling as a milestone in American justice that arrived
"like a thunderbolt."
"This ruling is a victory for America," said Obama, the first
sitting president to support gay marriage. "This decision affirms
what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts. When all
Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free."
As night fell, the White House was lit in rainbow colors - a symbol
of gay pride - to mark the high court's decision.
The ruling, the culmination of a long legal fight by gay rights
advocates, follows steady gains in public approval in recent years
for same-sex marriage. In 2004 Massachusetts became the first state
to legalize gay marriage. But the decision may provoke fresh legal
fights in some conservative, Republican-governed states.
 Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing on behalf of the court, said the
hope of gay people intending to marry "is not to be condemned to
live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest
institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The
Constitution grants them that right."
"Without the recognition, stability and predictability marriage
offers, their children suffer the stigma of knowing their families
are somehow lesser," Kennedy wrote.
Kennedy, a conservative who often casts the deciding vote in close
cases, was joined in the majority by the court's four liberal
justices.
Appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1988, Kennedy has
now authored all four of the court's major gay rights rulings, with
the first in 1996.
The ruling is the Supreme Court's most important expansion of
marriage rights in the United States since its landmark 1967 ruling
in the case Loving v. Virginia that struck down state laws barring
interracial marriages.
At least two states, Louisiana and Mississippi, said they would not
immediately issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples while
awaiting legal formalities. Supreme Court rulings generally take 25
days to go into effect.
"THREAT TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY"
In a blistering dissenting opinion, conservative Justice Antonin
Scalia said the decision shows the court is a "threat to American
democracy." The ruling "says that my ruler and the ruler of 320
million Americans coast-to-coast is a majority of the nine lawyers
on the Supreme Court," Scalia added.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts read a summary of his
dissent from the bench, the first time he has done so in his 10
years on the court. Roberts said although there are strong policy
arguments in same-sex marriage, it was not the court's role to force
states to change their marriage laws.
"Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of
marriage as a matter of constitutional law," Roberts wrote.
The dissenters raised concerns about the impact of the case on
people opposed to same-sex marriage on religious grounds.
While the ruling only affects state laws and religious institutions
can still choose whether to marry same-sex couples, Roberts
predicted future legal conflicts.
"Hard questions arise when people of faith exercise religion in ways
that may be seen to conflict with the new right to same-sex
marriage," Roberts said.
There were 13 state bans in place, while another state, Alabama, had
contested a court ruling that lifted the ban there.
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The ruling is the latest milestone in the gay rights movement. In
2010, Obama signed a law allowing gays to serve openly in the U.S.
military. In 2013, the high court ruled unconstitutional a 1996 U.S.
law that declared for the purposes of federal benefits marriage was
defined as between one man and one woman.
Reaction came swiftly. James Obergefell, the Ohio man who was the
lead plaintiff in the case, told a cheering crowd outside the
Supreme Court, "Today's ruling from the Supreme Court affirms what
millions across this country already know to be true in our hearts -
our love is equal, that the four words etched onto the front of the
Supreme Court - equal justice under law - apply to us, too."
Obama telephoned Obergefell to offer congratulations.
Hundreds of gay rights supporters celebrated outside the courthouse
with whoops and cries of "U-S-A!" and "Love is love" as the decision
came down.
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, another of the plaintiffs, April DeBeor,
told cheering supporters, "To my beautiful children, we did this for
you," referring to her adopted children.
"Love won," added popular comedian and talk show host Ellen
DeGeneres, who is gay.
"JUDICIAL TYRANNY"
Conservatives denounced the ruling. Republican presidential
candidate Mike Huckabee called it "an out-of-control act of
unconstitutional judicial tyranny."
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, who is expected to run
for president, called for amending the U.S. Constitution to allow
states to again ban same-sex marriage. Texas Republican Governor
Greg Abbott said, "Marriage was defined by God. No man can redefine
it."
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "It is profoundly immoral
and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same
sex can constitute a marriage."
Opponents say same-sex marriage's legality should be decided by
states, not judges. Some opponents argue it is an affront to
traditional marriage between a man and a woman and that the Bible
condemns homosexuality.
Gay marriage is also gaining acceptance in other Western countries.
Last month in Ireland, voters backed same-sex marriage by a
landslide in a referendum that marked a dramatic social shift in the
traditionally Roman Catholic country.
Ireland followed several Western European countries including
Britain, France and Spain in allowing gay marriage, which is also
legal in South Africa, Brazil and Canada. But homosexuality remains
taboo and often illegal in many parts of Africa and Asia.
The Supreme Court's ruling came in a consolidated case pulling
together challenges filed by same-sex couples to gay marriage bans
in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.
The Obama administration argued on the side of the same-sex marriage
advocates.
(Additional reporting by Joan Biskupic, Megan Cassella, Bill Trott,
Fiona Ortiz, Mary Wisniewski, Ben Klayman, Ayesha Rascoe, Jon
Herskovitz, Lindsay Dunsmuir, Any Sullivan and Roberta Rampton;
Editing by Will Dunham and Leslie Adler)
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