OBAMA PRAISES SUPREME COURT DECISION NOT TO HEAR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE APPEALS

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the Supreme Court’s recent gay marriage orders may have the biggest impact of any ruling of his presidency.

Obama told The New Yorker that the court’s Oct. 6 rejection of appeals from states seeking to preserve gay marriage bans is the best of his tenure.

The former law professor says although the court was not ready to expand gay marriage rights nationwide, “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.”

“Ultimately, I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all fifty states,” he said. “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.”