Marriage Equality, Airbnb Equity and Other Must-Reads

Another Day, Another Landmark Ruling: The Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage a Constitutional right. The definitive (though 5-4) ruling, the second major pronouncement by the Court in as many days, caps an astonishingly rapid reversal after "decades of litigation and activism," writes Adam Liptak in The New York Times. President Obama, who embraced gay marriage only three years ago, called the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges "a victory for America" at a Rose Garden appearance. "Sometimes there are days like this, when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt," he said.

Opposition to same-sex marriage often amounted to an argument that it was a threat to the institution itself. In his majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy addressed this head on: “It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage,” he said. “Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

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"It's a bloodbath today." — Shanghai executive Li Yu, who's losses Friday on China stock markets "were enough to buy a luxury car." 

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Room at the Inn: Airbnb is “on the brink” of securing a $1.5 billion infusion that would value the company at $24 billion, Henny Sender and Richard Waters report in the Financial Times. According to The Wall Street Journal’s Billion Dollar Startup Club — aka, Unicorn Tracker — that would catapult the peer-to-peer lodging service from eighth to third on the list, behind Uber at $41 billion (Uber is also pursuing a $1.5 billion investment that would value the company at $50 billion). If completed, the round would match “the biggest equity investment round for a private technology company: the $1.5bn that Facebook raised a year before its 2012 initial public offering,” the FT says.

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It’s Not Cheap Being Green: Bill Gates intends to double his investment in green tech to $2 billion over the next five years. In an interview with the Financial Times, Gates says his goal to make a material difference combating climate change. “The only way you can get to the very positive scenario is by great innovation,” he told the FT. “Innovation really does bend the curve.” And he challenged governments to commit tens of billions — three times current levels — to develop renewable, “zero-carbon” energy sources “that can be exploited at scale.”

Played Out: Satellite radio service SiriusXM will pay $210 million to settle a claim by major record labels for royalties over old recordings. The deal ends a lawsuit by Sony, Universal, Warner, and smaller players with important backlists and is the first to address "an obscure copyright matter that has become a closely watched issue in the industry: royalties for recordings made before 1972," writes Ben Sisario for The New York Times. But the suing began with members of 60s rock idols The Turtles; that case is still pending and has been grated class-action status.

No Texts For You! As of Friday, June 27, Google won’t send you SMS reminders about your calendar events. You’ve known this since for a month, so no excuses to make other arrangements. This is a time-marches-on story: Text reminders were cutting edge when Google introduced them, but that was before the advent of the smartphone. “Now, in a world with smartphones and notifications, you can get richer, more reliable experiences on your mobile device, even offline,” Google says.

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Cover Photo: People celebrate outside the Supreme Court after its historic decision on gay marriage. The Court ruled Friday that gay marriage is a nationwide right, a landmark decision in one of the most keenly awaited announcements in decades. (Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images)

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