HISTORIC RULING
End of ban on gay vows stirs emotional outpouring in D.C.
Hours before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling on gay marriage, the sidewalk in front of the marbled court building began to fill early Friday with spectators wanting to watch history unfold.
Gay-marriage supporters carried rainbow flags and posters declaring, “Love” and “America Is Ready.” Far outnumbered, backers of traditional marriage stood quietly behind a banner proclaiming, “One Man, One Woman.”
By the time the decision came down, shortly after 10 a.m. ET, the crowd had grown so large that it pressed against the metal barricades police had erected in front of the Supreme Court plaza to maintain order and occasionally spilled out into the street that separates the court building from the U.S. Capitol.
As word of the ruling spread, a huge roar rose from the crush of onlookers. Then another. Then another.
Justice Anthony Kennedy
“Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
“This is something you have to see in person,” said Jennifer Haul of Houston, a law student at Georgetown University in Washington. “I will remember this for the rest of my life.”
Inside the court chamber, Memphis attorney Maureen Holland watched from her seat on the front row as the nine black-robed justices took the bench.
Holland, who represents Ijpe DeKoe and Thom Kostura, a Memphis couple who were among the gaymarriage plaintiffs, had a hunch the decision might come down Friday.
Two years ago on the same date — June 26 — the court had overturned part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which had defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Twelve years ago on the same date, the court issued another landmark ruling that state sodomy laws were unconstitutional.
“There was some thought this (marriage) decision also could be on June 26,” Holland said. “On account of that, I made sure I was in the courtroom today in the event it did happen.”
As the justices took their places on the bench, Holland waited anxiously. Then Justice Anthony Kennedy began to read and summarize the majority opinion.
Holland’s hopes for victory suddenly soared— it was Kennedy, she knew, who had written the majority opinion two years earlier that overturned part of the Defense of Marriage Act.
It was Kennedy, most court watchers agreed, who would be the swing vote in the latest gay-marriage case.
By the time it became clear which direction Kennedy was heading with the latest ruling, “people were essentially sobbing with elation all around me,” Holland said. “It was very powerful.”
Back outside, anxiety quickly turned into celebration.
“Love has won! Love has won!” the crowd chanted, again and again.
Someone released a string of red balloons, which took flight over the plaza and spelled out “L-OV-E.” The crowd cheered again.
Tourists leaned out the open windows of a passing bus and pumped fists in the air in a show of solidarity.
A man in a pink tie sobbed uncontrollably.
A hushed silence fell over the celebrants as the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., began softly singing “The Impossible Dream.”