President Barack Obama says he believes
the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to marry for gay and lesbian
couples.
Obama's comments come just weeks after
the Supreme Court decided against hearing appeals in five cases
challenging gay marriage bans in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wisconsin
and Indiana, effectively legalizing such unions in 11 states.
The president cited the decision when
asked by Jeffrey Toobin to name the court's best decision of his
tenure.
“In some ways, the decision that was
just handed down to not do anything about what states are doing on
same-sex marriage may end up being as consequential – from my
perspective, a positive sense – as anything that’s been done,”
Obama
said. “Because I think it really signals that although the
Court was not quite ready – it didn't have sufficient votes to
follow Loving v. Virginia and go ahead and indicate an
equal-protection right across the board – it was a consequential
and powerful signal of the changes that have taken place in society
and that the law is having to catch up.”
In Loving, the high court struck
down state bans on interracial marriage.
He continued: “Ultimately, I think
the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all
fifty states. But, as you know, courts have always been strategic.
There have been times where the stars were aligned and the Court,
like a thunderbolt, issues a ruling like Brown v. Board of
Education, but that’s pretty rare. And, given the direction of
society, for the Court to have allowed the process to play out the
way it has may make the shift less controversial and more lasting.”