Washington DC: United States Supreme Court (Photo credit: wallyg)

By Dana Milbank

The moment Justice Anthony Kennedy said the words — “Section 3 of DOMA is in violation of the Fifth Amendment” — a muffled cheer pierced the quiet in the Supreme Court chamber.

Heads turned to the audience and security officers looked for the offender, but the celebration was just beginning.

A few minutes later, as the dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia was accusing the majority of making opponents of same-sex marriage look like “enemies of the human race” and “unhinged members of a wild-eyed lynch mob,” those seated near the chamber’s windows heard vibrations that sounded at first like a helicopter.

But this was no aircraft: Word that the court had just dismantled the Defense of Marriage Act and thereby removed federal obstacles to same-sex marriage had made its way from the courtroom to news broadcasts and finally to the hundreds of gay rights supporters massing in front of the court. Their cheers echoed over the marble façade, across the cloistered courtyards and into the hallowed chamber itself.

Twenty minutes later, after the justices announced a second opinion that killed off a California ban on gay marriage, the same-sex couples who had brought the case against the California law emerged from the courthouse with one of their lawyers, David Boies, and raised their linked hands in triumph at the top of the steps.

Read More Dana Milbank: Supreme Court gay marriage rulings lead to celebrations – The Washington Post.