'No union is more profound than marriage'
The legal arguments are important, but the essence of the 5-4 decision recognizing marriage equality nationwide comes in the final paragraph of Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion:
"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."
That's what this has always been about. Not procreation. Not religious beliefs. Not outdated stereotypes.
It has been about embracing the fundamental freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that drove our founding fathers to declare independence. The Supreme Court delivered on that promise Friday.
VALDEZ:Marriage just got stronger
ROBERTS:Equality is the law of the land
MONTINI:The right to pursue happiness
The opponents don't see it that way. The dissenting justices, especially Antonin Scalia, were harsh in their criticism of the majority. Social conservatives decried the decision as undermining the institution of marriage.
We beg to differ. In this age, when young people see marriage as an anachronism, when so many unions end in divorce, the institution needs all the help it can get. Gay and lesbian couples are the allies the social conservatives need. They believe in marriage. They want to see it expand.
They pose no threat to marriage as an institution, as the defendants in the case implicitly acknowledged during oral arguments. When Kennedy asked attorney John Bursch how opening up the institution could harm heterosexual unions, he could only stammer that it would weaken the procreation-centered view of marriage. If that were the standard, many heterosexual couples could not marry.
Photos: Gay-marriage ruling in Arizona
Allowing gays and lesbians to marry takes nothing away from heterosexual couples. And nothing in the court's decision forces churches to change their practices. Those denominations whose doctrines define marriage as only between one man and one woman have the constitutional protection to continue to abide by their beliefs.
Just as gays and lesbians now have the constitutional protection to celebrate their love in civil ceremonies or through churches that welcome them.
They want no more and no less than any heterosexual couple. Read again Kennedy's soaring rhetoric. Marriage is profound because it embodies the highest ideas of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. It creates something greater than two people individually. It is a commitment to love and honor until "death do us part" – and in the case of some, like plaintiff Jim Obergefel, beyond.
Why would we deny such joy to a loving gay or lesbian couple?
Friday's historic decision was no assault on democracy. It did nothing to destroy the institution of marriage. Quite the contrary. Marriage is stronger today because it has more defenders, more believers. And our nation is better for being true to our founding principles.