“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest
ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” he wrote. “In
forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they
were.”
“It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea
of marriage,” Justice Kennedy said of the couples challenging state bans on
same-sex 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.”
