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THE freedom to marry, wrote Earl Warren, chiefjustice of the United States Supreme Court,haslong been recognised as one of the vital personalrights essential to the orderly pursuit of happinessby free men. Warren wrotethat sentence in 1967,by way of explaining why he and his colleaguesunanimously ruled that laws banning interracialmarriages violated both theequal protection anddue process clauses of the fourteenth amendment.Supporters of gay marriage would like to see thatsame court apply that same reasoning to theircause. On February 7th a federal court in California brought them one step closer. 婚姻自由，长久以来都乃自由之人追求幸福不可或缺之至高无上人权之一。美国最高法院的首席大法官Earl Warren在1967年时和他的同僚们一致通过裁定，认为禁止不同种族通婚的禁令违反了第十四修正案的平等保护条款和正当程序条款，为了解释这一裁定，他写下了上面这句话。同性恋婚姻的支持者们希望看到这同一法庭也将同一理由适用于他们的案件。而加州联邦法庭在2月7日的判决让他们离自己的目标更近了一步。 The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Proposition 8, a ballotinitiative passed by Californias voters in November 2008 amending the constitution toprohibit gay marriage, was unconstitutional. That initiative passed fivemonths afterCalifornias Supreme Court overturned an earlier ban on gaymarriage; during that time,California granted marriage licences to some 18,000 gay couples. | 
