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You won't see these words in Kennedy's DOMA decision

By Debra Cassens Weiss

June 27, 2013, 10:50 am CDT

June 27

• • Scalia predicts the future, once again, in gay-marriage dissent
• • Gays who want to marry in California may have to wait for 25 days or more
• • You won’t see these words in Kennedy’s DOMA decision

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June 26

• • SCOTUS standing ruling has effect of allowing gay marriage in California
• • SCOTUS strikes down DOMA, which banned federal benefits to married gay couples

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Chemerinsky on SCOTUS gay-marriage cases

• • Decoding the gay-marriage oral arguments
• • Same-sex marriage battle goes before the Supreme Court

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy didn’t use the word “gay” in his majority opinion on Wednesday striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that denied federal benefits to same-sex married couples.

Nor did he use the plural “gays,” the Wall Street Journal Law Blog (sub. req.) reports. Also absent: the words “lesbian” and “love.” The blog gives a hat tip to the control-F command on its keyboard.

The blog also notes some unusual words in a dissent by Justice Antonin Scalia, including “argle-bargle”—meaning a vigorous discussion or dispute.