Today, Wednesday, was a big day for the The Supreme Court by declaring that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was discriminatory against gay married couples and unconstitutional. This now widens the door open for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

However, today there was also a large marriage decision in the other direction by the court today by Chief Justice John Roberts, seemingly to somewhat offer a counterbalance. Roberts dismissed California's Proposition 8, allowing states to continue to debate the definition of marriage. 

Justice Anthony Kennedy said that if gay marriage is recognized by a state, the federal government could not deny same-sex married couples benefits. DOMA has made a culture of "second-tier marriages" by not recognizing gay married couples, according to Kennedy. 

"It tells those [same-sex] couples, and all the world, that their otherwise valid marriages are unworthy of federal recognition," he wrote. "It humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples."

Justice Antonin Scalia responded, "Few public controversies will ever demonstrate so vividly the beauty of what our framers gave us, a gift the court pawns today to buy its stolen moment in the spotlight: a system of government that permits us to rule ourselves," he wrote. "We might have covered ourselves with honor today, by promising all sides of this debate that it was theirs to settle and that we would respect their resolution. We might have let the people decide. But that the majority will not do."

Scalia said the Supreme Court couldn't both declare that states should decide marriage while telling them that gay marriage was morally right. 

"The real rationale of today's opinion, whatever disappearing trail of its legalistic argle-bargle one chooses to follow, is that DOMA is motivated by 'bare ... desire to harm' couples in same-sex marriages," he said. "How easy it is, indeed how inevitable, to reach the same conclusion with regard to state laws denying same-sex couples marital status."

Because of John Roberts second decisions of the day, the state laws survive for now.

By dismissing the Pro 8 case, Roberts' decision upholds the state constitutional amendment law in California. With this ruling on DOMA however, the future will more than likely overtake the Proposition 8 decision. 

"This [DOMA] decision is far-reaching, with massive implications for family life and religious liberty," said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. "The grounding of this decision in equal protection and human dignity means this is not simply a procedural matter of federalism. This is a new legal reality."