President Obama said his favorite Supreme Court decision of his time as president was the one on gay marriage.
In an interview with the New Yorker, Obama said he liked the pragmatic approach that the court took in two cases on same-sex marriage.
“In some ways, the decision that was just handed down to not do anything about what states are doing on same-sex marriage may end up being as consequential — from my perspective, a positive sense — as anything that’s been done,” he said.
The decision allowed the “political process to go forward, one state at a time,” Obama added.
“Because I think it really signals that although the Court was not quite ready — it didn’t have sufficient votes to follow Loving v. Virginia and go ahead and indicate an equal-protection right across the board — 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,” he said.
In the Loving decision from 1967, the Supreme Court held that states could no longer ban interracial marriage.
Obama also revealed his belief that the Constitution requires all states to allow same-sex marriage, something his administration has not yet argued to the Supreme Court.
“Ultimately, I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all fifty states,” he said. “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.”
