News from The Associated Press

The outcome is the culmination of two decades of Supreme Court litigation over marriage, and gay rights generally.

 

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, just as he did in the court’s previous three major gay rights cases dating back to 1996. It came on the anniversary of two of those earlier decisions.

 

“No union is more profound than marriage,” Kennedy wrote, joined by the court’s four more liberal justices.

 

The four dissenting justices each filed a separate opinion explaining their views.

 

“But this court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in dissent. Roberts read a summary of his dissent from the bench, the first time he has done so in nearly 10 years as chief justice.

 

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