Justice
A Major Moment for Gay Rights
Crowds gathered at San Francisco's City Hall and outside the U.S. Supreme Court to watch and then celebrate today's landmark rulings.
Same-sex couples in the United States didn't waste any time celebrating the Supreme Court's landmark rulings in favor of gay rights.
This morning, the Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented legally married same-sex couples from receiving federal benefits available to other married couples, is unconstitutional. In a separate ruling, the Court found that the sponsors of California's Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in the state, had no standing to appeal lower-court decisions that held the law to be unconstitutional. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, that means gays and lesbians could be allowed to marry in California within weeks.