US Supreme Court makes landmark ruling in favour of gay marriage

The US Supreme Court today made the landmark decision to strike down the Defence of Marriage Act, granting same-sex married couples the same benefits as their straight counterparts.

To enormous cheers from activists on the court steps, justices split into liberal and conservative camps to overturn the 1996 law and deliver a major victory for gay rights in America. 

The Supreme Court also dismissed a case on California's ban on gay marriage, effectively reinstating marriage rights for same-sex couples in the country's largest state. 

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the centrist judge whose "swing vote" often decides major rulings, sided with the court's four liberals to strike down the law, which defined marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. 

The five justices ruled that the law violated gay people's right equal protection under the US Constitution, writing that it unfairly "imposes a disability" on same-sex married couples.

"The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity," Justice Kennedy wrote. 

The ruling means that gay couples in the 12 US states which permit same-sex marriage will have their marriages recognised by the federal government. It tears down more than 1,000 regulations which prevent married gay couples from receiving equal treatment on issues of tax, immigration and property. 

However, it does not grant marriage rights to gay couples in the remaining 38 states. 

The case was brought by Edith Windsor, an 84-year-old lesbian, who was made to pay $363,000 (£226,000) in taxes after the death of her partner of 44 years.

Miss Windsor would not have had to pay the tax if she was married to a man and she successfully argued before a New York court that her constitutional rights were being violated. 

The act was passed in 1996 by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed reluctantly into law by Bill Clinton, to the fury of gay rights advocates. 

Earlier this year, Mr Clinton disavowed the law and said he believed it should be struck down.

In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court decided not to issue a verdict on Proposition 8, a Californian referendum initiative that banned gay marriage. 

The decision means that gay marriages can resume in California but the ruling has no impact on other states. 

In Washington DC, where gay marriage is also permitted, bells rang out at churches across the liberal US capital. 

The rulings were a major step in what has become a rapid American journey towards accepting marriage between people of the same sex. 

In December of last year, when the court agreed to hear the two gay marriage cases, nine states and Washington DC allowed same-sex couples to wed. In the six months it took the justices to reach a ruling that number has climbed to 12 states and more are expected soon. 

The expansion of marriage rights has run in parallel in to a rapid shift in public opinion on the divisive issue. 

In November 2004, the same month George W Bush was re-elected on the strength of Christian evangelical turnout, only 21 per cent of Americans supported gay marriage according to a CBS / New York Times poll. 

By February 2009, weeks after Mr Obama took office, that figure had risen to 30 per cent and this month it had climbed to 51 per cent.