SCOTUS strikes down DOMA, punts on California’s Prop 8

Here’s some news ripe for the 2016 pickings courtesy of the Supreme Court. In rulings Wednesday the court finally waded into the same-sex marriage arena by striking down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act and making a less-groundbreaking technical ruling California’s proposition 8.

Report from the AP:

The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits.

The other was a technical ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court’s declaration that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. That outcome probably will allow state officials to order the resumption of same-sex weddings in the nation’s most populous state in about a month.

In neither case did the court make a sweeping statement, either in favor of or against same-sex marriage.

Clearly this may help mobilize supporters of traditional marriage but I’d bet the fervor will be just as matched on the side of advancing same-sex marriage as well.