EDITOR’S NOTE: Every summer, PSJD hires current law students as Project Assistants. They help us manage our website, social media marketing, and more.  These students come from different law schools all over the country, but they are all united in their commitment to pro bono and public interest law. They do such an amazing job at helping us out that we’ve dubbed them our “Project Assassins”! Every day this week, a different Project Assassin will be contributing to the blog, discussing their particular legal interests. First up: David Munoz, a rising 2L at American University Washington College of Law! Read on to see what he has to say about the Supreme Court’s recent decisions on gay marriage.

Hi everyone! My name is David Munoz and I’m working this summer as one of the part-time PSJD project assistants. That means that I’m aiding our amazing PSJD Fellow, Ashley Matthews, in doing what PSJD does best: seeking out and posting all of those amazing public interest jobs we’re all chomping at the bit to land! Along with that work, however, another perk of my job is to post here on the PSJD blog pieces on issues that are important to me. With SCOTUS releasing its decision on the marriage equality cases recently, there’s no better time for me to contribute.

Currently a rising 2L at American University’s Washington College of Law, I spent my 1L year serving on the board of WCL’s chapter of the Lambda Law Society. In February, the board agreed that with the Supreme Court granting certiorari of the Prop 8 and DoMA cases, it was imperative for us to organize for our members a field trip to the Supreme Court. On that March afternoon, Lambda and its members found itself outside the court, some wearing the color red, some holding signs, all in support of marriage equality. Even though I couldn’t join everyone on the trip (sneaking out of class proved impossible!), the importance of the day was not lost on me. We are on the cusp of something that just thirty years ago gay men and women could not have imagined and that’s incredibly exciting.

The recent Supreme Court decisions in California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act cases are an encouraging sign that the tides have officially turned for proponents of marriage equality. While SCOTUS simply punted the Prop 8 case on standing issues, the decision on DoMA was an important victory for the LGBTQ community and its allies. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, stated that “DoMA’s avowed purpose and practical effect are to impose a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages made lawful by the unquestioned authority.” The importance of the DoMA decision is in the “moral weight” that the Supreme Court offers. By utilizing strong, emotional language, the Supreme Court is helping to bolster the fight for marriage equality. And while the cause has a number of passionate opponents, SCOTUS’ DoMA decision only makes it that much more difficult to block same-sex marriages and effectively discriminate against homosexual couples at the federal level. In short, the decision was history-making.

The Supreme Court’s decision to punt the Prop 8 case on a standing issue was a little less than history-making. Ultimately, the Supreme Court found that the supporters of Prop 8 lacked the standing necessary to appeal and, because of that, the case was remanded down to the Ninth Circuit with instructions to vacate its former ruling. Thus, what is in place is the district court’s original decision in the original case, meaning that same-sex marriage is once again legal in California. Some were understandably disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision, if only because it added nothing substantive to the marriage equality issue. By punting the case, the Supreme Court avoided saying anything further regarding same-sex marriage laws in other states. However, one need only look at the effects the decision has had on California’s same-sex couples to understand that SCOTUS’ decision was still incredibly important. In the wake of the Prop 8 decision, California’s Santa Clara County has been issuing a record number of marriage licenses daily, a number of them to same-sex couples. If nothing else, such news helps to dismantle that old canard that same-sex marriage will destroy the institution of marriage. Same-sex marriage hasn’t, and it won’t.

Once again, the Supreme Court’s decisions on DoMA and Prop 8 were important in their own ways. While it took the Supreme Court some time to catch up with the Court of Public Opinion, things finally seem to be heading in the right direction. As new and future lawyers with a passion in public interest, this is one of the most important ways in which we can help our fellow citizens.