This is a Kato Daily Podcast for Friday, June 26, 2015. I'm Caleb Brown.

The Supreme Court today held narrowly that marriage, this time including same-sex marriage is a

fundamental right and cannot be abridged by states. I spoke with Cato's

Roger Pallon and Walter Olson about the impact of this for a special edition of

Cato Connects.

What did the court decide today and I guess as importantly what did the court not decide today?

Well the court decided that same-sex marriage is required under the Constitution,

both pursuant to the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause and its Equal Protection Clauses.

It is a fundamental right.

Moreover, all states have to recognize it and have to recognize the marriages that were consummated in other states.

So this was a big win for proponents of same-sex marriage.

At the same time, the soaring rhetoric of Justice Kennedy in writing the opinion, which not surprisingly

Justice Scalia had a field day with, was not really in most respects relevant to the legal aspects of this case.

It would have been much better if Justice Kennedy had focused and done a more thorough job of fleshing out the legal foundations

for the holding.

So if he'd had more time, he could have written a shorter opinion?

That's one way to put it in, and It's probably the best way to put it.

All right, Walter Olson.

Before the decision came out, there was a lot of speculation

as to not so much which way Justice Kennedy would go.

People guessed that correctly, but which rationale he would adopt.

Would he rest on due process or equal protection or animus or even sex discrimination? There were a number of options, and yet he didn't clearly take any of them.

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