The first—a 5-to-4 decision striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act —will immediately extend many benefits, such as the favorable tax consequences that heterosexual married couples enjoy, to same-sex couples married in the states that allow same-sex unions. In the second holding, the Supreme Court refused to decide a California case on technical grounds, thereby leaving in place a trial court victory for two couples who had sought to marry and paving the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.
It also leaves undecided the constitutionality of Proposition 8, which amends the California Constitution to provide that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."