This is the second time the Supreme Court has voted to legalize same-sex marriage; In May 2017 it ruled in favor of a Bermudian man and his Canadian partner who had challenged the rejection of their marriage application. The verdict was an important victory for LGBT rights groups, which have long argued that same-sex spouses of EU citizens should be afforded the same basic right to live and work across the bloc's 28 countries as heterosexual spouses, regardless of individual countries' stances on same-sex marriage. The European Court of Justice ruled today that as far as the laws of free movement within the European Union are concerned, the term “spouse” includes married people of the same sex (pdf). “Although the member states have the freedom whether or not to authorise marriage between persons of the same sex,” the judges said, “they may not obstruct the freedom of residence of an EU citizen by refusing to grant his same-sex spouse, a national of a country that is not an EU member state, a derived right of residence in their territory.”

The verdict was an important victory for LGBT rights groups, which have long argued that same-sex spouses of EU citizens should be afforded the same basic right to live and work across the bloc’s 28 countries as heterosexual spouses, regardless of individual countries’ stances on same-sex marriage.
The European Court of Justice rules that EU countries that have not legalised same-sex marriage must still offer same-sex spouses the same residency rights as heterosexual couples under freedom of movement laws.