Barack Obama Image by getty images

President Barack Obama wasted no time hailing the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage.

Within moments of the ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, the president Tweeted:

Today’s DOMA ruling is a historic step forward for #MarriageEquality. #LoveIsLove.

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Obama later applauded the decision that makes married gay men and women eligible for federal benefits, and he directed Attorney General Eric Holder to review all relevant federal laws to ensure the ruling is implemented.

“We are a people who declared that we are all created equal, and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama said in a written statement. He got the news as he flew to Africa aboard Air Force One.

Obama said the ruling applies only to civil marriages and that how religious institutions define and consecrate marriages has always been up to those institutions.

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