IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg officiates at same-sex marriage

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg marries Michael M. Kaiser, left, and John Roberts in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday. Kaiser is president of the center; Roberts is an economist.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg marries Michael M. Kaiser, left, and John Roberts in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday. Kaiser is president of the center; Roberts is an economist.Margot Schulman

Saturday marked the first time that a Supreme Court member conducted a same-sex marriage ceremony.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiated at the marriage of a longtime friend, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Michael M. Kaiser, to economist John Roberts in the atrium of the center in Washington.

Kaiser has been president of the center since 2001.

A representative of the center said the wedding was not a gala event – “just a ceremony followed by a dinner” – but added that the guest list included more than 200 attendees.

Ginsburg, who turned 80 this year, was among the majority in a Supreme Court decision earlier this summer declaring that people in same-sex marriages are entitled to the hundreds of federal benefits that couples in opposite-sex marriages have.

Thirteen states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws legalizing same-sex marriages.

Related: Liz Cheney: 'I am not pro-gay marriage'