Washington – Same-sex couples have a constitutionally protected right to marry, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday in a history-making victory for the gay civil rights movement.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, adding to a trilogy of landmark rulings in which he has emphasized the equal rights and dignity of gay and lesbian Americans, led a 5-4 majority in holding that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause prohibits states from denying marriage licenses to those citizens. The ruling also requires states to recognize the same-sex marriages of other states.
