Jun 26, 2013 11:50 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) of 1996 on Wednesday, allowing same-sex married couples to gain marriage benefits, USA Today reported.

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced the 5-4 vote in the DOMA case, joined by four other justices from the court's liberal wing. The decision stated the DOMA "violates basic due process and equal protection principles applicable to the Federal Government."

Justice Kennedy wrote: "The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the state, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity."

Justice Scalia read a part of his dissent, joined by three others, saying the Supreme Court should not have ruled on the act at all.

"By formally declaring anyone opposed to same-sex marriage an enemy of human decency, the majority arms well every challenger to a state law restricting marriage to its traditional definition," he wrote.

The Wall Street Journal reported the non-partisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 50 percent of Americans supported gay marriage, a drastic increase from 39 percent in 2008.

When Proposition 8 passed in California in 2008, only two other states allowed gay marriage, toady, 12 states, including the District of Columbia, permit same-sex marriage.

CNN reported the case decided on whether or not the federal government can deny tax, pension and health benefits to same-sex couples in states that allow them to marry. The issue at the center of the case was if DOMA violated these benefits under the Fifth Amendment's equal protection promise to due process.

Edith Windsor, 84, married her partner Thea Spyer in Canada in 2007 with the two being 40 years into their relationship. When Spyer died in 2009, New York, the couple's home, recognized same-sex marriages performed in other countries, but the federal government did not. Windsor was charged with an estate tax much larger than what a heterosexual married couple would have, so she sued the federal government.

She won last year in a federal appeals court, which said DOMA violated the Constitution's equal protection clause.

Click here to read the Supreme Court's full decision.

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