striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman, ruled on Thursday that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
The 4-to-3 decision, drawing on a ruling 60 years ago that struck down a state ban on interracial marriage, would make California the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages.
I'll let hilzoy take over from here:
Six of the seven justices on the court were appointed by Republicans.
This is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I am a complete sucker for marriage. I think everyone should have one. The idea that our governments decide to prevent people from having them -- that there are couples out there who love each other and want to get married and can't, not for comprehensible reasons like a ban on incest, but just because of flat-out bigotry, or because of the imaginary threat that same-sex marriages pose to heterosexual marriages -- is just plain wrong. Moreover, I think it's wrong not just substantively, but legally: distinctions based on sexual orientation ought to be suspect, and in this case the state does not have a compelling interest in drawing one.
Yay for California, and yay for its Supreme Court.
Also being a complete sucker for marriage, I say: Yay indeed.
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