Supreme Court extends federal benefits to married gay couples

I saw it was 5-4, I don't know for sure who voted which way, but I can assume Kennedy was the deciding vote since that's usually how he rolls.

So glad it went this way, keeping my fingers crossed the Prop. 8 ruling goes this well, too.
 
In only states that have gay marriage, or everywhere?

DOMA was repealed; http://www.glaad.org/marriage/doma#what-is-doma

Basically, you could work for the federal government, in a state like Massachusetts, say, and despite the fact that your state recognized your marriage, you would not be able to use your federal government benefits, such as health insurance, for your spouse.

edit: so with DOMA down, it doesn't mean gay marriages can happen everywhere, it just means that the federal government isn't going to deny your spouse benefits anymore just because you're the same sex.
 
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from the Liveblog:
Amy Howe:
Here's a Plain English take on Hollingsworth v. Perry, the challenge to the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage: After the two same-sex couples filed their challenge to Proposition 8 in federal court in California, the California government officials who would normally have defended the law in court, declined to do so. So the proponents of Proposition 8 stepped in to defend the law, and the California Supreme Court (in response to a request by the lower court) ruled that they could do so under state law. But today the Supreme Court held that the proponents do not have the legal right to defend the law in court. As a result, it held, the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the intermediate appellate court, has no legal force, and it sent the case back to that court with instructions for it to dismiss the case.

edit: also:
Kevin Russell:
There will be much further discussion and analysis about how the decision in Perry affects other couples in California. For the time being, we will say this: the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal challenging a final order from the trial court. It would appear, then, that the order will go into effect. And it appears that this final order purports to prohibit the Attorney General and the Governor from enforcing Prop. 8.

There could well be new challenges to the scope of that order. But for the time being, the order appears to be in effect and to prevent enforcement of Proposition 8 statewide.
 
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I saw it was 5-4, I don't know for sure who voted which way, but I can assume Kennedy was the deciding vote since that's usually how he rolls.

So glad it went this way, keeping my fingers crossed the Prop. 8 ruling goes this well, too.

he was, and he made a very very strong statement in favor of his ruling that it was unconstitutional.
 
^yeah, after I posted that I was able to find the actual ruling. Exciting day!
 
So happy! Not only does it make life more fair for some people, it also upholds the legalities of all marriage in the USA. I cannot believe more people weren't up in arms over it to begin with, but I guess fear of certain things was enough not to realize it could mean bad things for any marriage a state decided wasn't "good"
 
theyre so dumb they dont even understand what the ruling was....

They think it allows gay people to get married when it has nothing to do with that

To be honest, a lot of people on both sides of the issue don't realize that