Supreme Court Gay Marriage

Supporters of same-sex marriage celebrate outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday June 26, 2015, after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the US. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

(Jacquelyn Martin)

(*12:58 p.m. This post has been updated to further elaborate PennLive's policy for accepting letters and op-Eds on same-sex marriage)

June 26 just became a de facto national holiday for gay Americans as the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, found that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.

With the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, gay marriage becomes legal across the country, including the 13 states that up until now had banned it.

Pennsylvania is among 37 states, and the District of Columbia, that had legalized gay marriage. A federal court decision in May 2014 dismantled the state's defense of marriage act.

Writing emotionally for the court's majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan-era appointee, who has played a key role in the high court's decisions regarding same-sex couples, concluded thus:

"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."

Kennedy nailed it: There are no rights more fundamental than due process and equal treatment under the law.

That's what hung in the balance for millions of same-sex couples whose marriages, performed legally in one state, might not be recognized by another.

Thanks the court's ruling, same-sex couples in all 50 states will now enjoy the same rights of inheritance, medical visitation, power of attorney, and taxation privileges enjoyed by all couples.

The court's ruling Friday was every bit as profound a victory for civil rights as was its 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia, which found state bans on interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

In the more than four decades since, a union that was viewed as unnatural and even a hideous provocation to violence is now commonplace and celebrated.

On Friday, the United States crossed a similar threshold, continuing a long road to acceptance of same-sex unions.

And this news organization now crosses another threshold.

As a result of Friday's ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will very strictly limit op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage.

These unions are now the law of the land. And we will not publish such letters and op-Eds any more than we would publish those that are racist, sexist or anti-Semitic.

We will, however, for a limited time, accept letters and op-Eds on the high court's decision and its legal merits.

The march of progress is often slow, but it is always steady.

On Friday, the United States took another step toward the ideal of equality envisioned by its founders. And we are all more free as a result.