NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In Washington crowds gathered outside the Supreme Court building Friday to celebrate the Supreme Court's ruling to legalize same-sex marriage across the nation.
It's a court case that has been closely watched by students and professors at Vanderbilt University.
“Brown Vs. Board of Ed said that you couldn’t segregate schools by race and Loving Vs. Virginia said you couldn’t ban interracial marriages. I think this case is on that level for gay rights and I think it will be taught for years to come,” Professor Suzanna Sherry said.
She said she was not surprised by the justice's split, 5 to 4 vote. Meanwhile, State Attorney General Herbert Slatery said Friday's court ruling has been a disappointment.
"Today the court redefined the marriage by litigation rather than by democracy," Slatery said. "The wise decision is to comply with the case and promptly issue the marriage licenses."
"The descending justices are very unhappy about this and I can understand that a lot of people will also be unhappy but remember there were a lot of people who were very unhappy about Brown Vs. Board of Ed case and now we can't imagine that its wrong and I feel in much less than 50 years we will feel the same way about this case, that we won't be able to imagine a day where we thought that it was appropriate to discriminate," said Sherry.
She said the only way to undo this ruling is if Congress and the States ratify a constitutional amendment that states’ bans on same-sex marriages are not a violation of the constitution, but the likelihood of that happening is very slim.
