X, a summary of the Bill of Rights from a website doesn't exactly explain what the Constitution has to do with marriage. In fact, the whole debate here is centered around the 14th amendment (which isn't part of the bill of rights), and this clause in particular:
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Now, where does marriage factor into this? Well, according to the majority opinion:
Under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, no State shall “deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law.” [...] In addition these liberties extend to certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy, including intimate choices that define personal identity and beliefs. [...] Applying these established tenets, the Court has long held the right to marry is protected by the Constitution.
And after showing, through various premises, that the 'right to marry' is a fundamental liberty protected by the 14th Amendment, the opinion concludes that:
Under the Constitution, same-sex couples seek in marriage the same legal treatment as opposite-sex couples, and it would disparage their choices and diminish their personhood to deny them this right. The right of same-sex couples to marry is part of the liberty promised by the Fourteenth Amendment [...]
Now, here's what I don't like about the Court's logic (note that this is MY OPINION, and I don't pretend to know law better than supreme court justices. I'm just trying to give some insight into the matter):
Same-sex
couples have no specific rights under the fourteenth amendment. The 'right to marry' protected by the amendment explicitly applies to
individuals: "no State shall deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law." And yet, throughout the whole opinion, the 'right to marry' and the 'right of same-sex couples to marry' are used interchangeably, while they are in fact two very distinct things. Gay individuals are indeed guaranteed the right marry, and are not denied any right to marry other individuals based on their sexual orientation.
This confusion is pretty flagrant in a later passage from the opinion:
These considerations lead to the conclusion that the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.
The opinion at first explicitly refers to the liberty of the person, and then tells us that couples are being deprived of that liberty. Yet the legal entity that is a couple has no rights and no liberties under the 14th Amendment. Only persons do.
Food for thought.