Windsor/Perry and Marriage/Parenthood

So, the same-sex marriage cases came out as they were widely predicted to do -- the Court struck down DOMA and punted on the larger question of whether there is a constitutional right to same sex marriage.  It is a big contrast to yesterday's family law decision--see below for my post on the Baby Veronica case -- in that I was virtually certain what the Court was going to do, but am excited anyway! So marriage equality will proceed state by state. 

What is most interesting to me is the relationship between parenthood and marriage, both before and after this decision. I wrote about this for the Huffington Post a couple of days ago. And I'm not surprised that one of the most strongly worded parts of Justice Kennedy's opinion in Windsor deals with children--noting that DOMA "humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. . .mak[ing] it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families..." (page 23).

PS , as a former impact litigator with some experience choosing and working with plaintiffs, I cannot get over what a fantastically charismatic plaintiff Edie Windsor is--see her reaction to the decision).