Today, the Supreme Court declined to hear all pending petitions in marriage cases, sending an unmistakable signal that the Court is comfortable with lower court decisions in favor of marriage and quietly but forcefully bringing the number of states where same-sex couples can get married to 30.

It may seem somewhat counterintuitive that by doing nothing the Supreme Court actually made history. But because the rulings that were being appealed had gone in favor of same-sex marriage, the Court’s decision not to hear any of the cases in effect upholds those rulings and means that marriages will go forward immediately in five new states: Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The ACLU was co-counsel in five of the seven cases in question today, and we are proud to be a part in winning marriage across the country. From 1936, when we brought our first LGBT rights case, to 1970, when we filed the country’s first freedom-to-marry lawsuit, to 2012, when we helped win marriage at the ballot box right here in Maine, this historic movement has truly been decades in the making.

Of course, as we celebrate today we can’t forget that there is still much work to be done. Thirty states is an amazing threshold to reach, but it’s still only 60% of the way there. We will continue with our many pending lawsuits in states without the right to marry and we will remain fiercely committed to this fight until every loving and committed couple throughout the country has the protections of marriage.