SCOTUS deals big blow to DOMA

Good day to be a liberal. I''m not one to drink the bitter tears of my opponents, but admit I'm enjoying the moment and wallowing in the joy exploding all over my internets. SCOTUS delivered two big victories for gay rights this morning.

The two cases, both decided on 5-4 votes, concerned the constitutionality of a key part of a federal law, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that denied benefits to same-sex married couples, and a voter-approved California state law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.

The Court struck down the use of the theocrats' strict definition of marriage as a criteria for federal benefits as unconstiutional and weaseled out of the PropH8 decision by denying standing to the plaintiffs, which allows the lower court decision that found California's gay marriage ban unconstitutional to stand.

Doubt this will be the end of it, nothing is forever in the law, but good to see the attack on equal rights thwarted for now. [photo via]