The Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision today in the case of Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, Director, Ohio Depertment of Health, et al. Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan. The majority concluded that,
No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. 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.
The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires a State to license a marriage between same sex couples, and to recognize that marriage if it was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state.
Delaware passed its Marriage Equality Act in 2013, but based on the Supreme Court's decision the marriages performed in Delaware will now be recognized in other states.
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