Scotus decision gay marriage
A decade after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision, marriage equality endures risky terrain
Milestones — especially in decades — usually call for celebration. The 10th anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, is distinct. There’s a sense of unease as state and federal lawmakers, as skillfully as several judges, seize steps that could carry the issue back to the Supreme Court, which could undermine or overturn existing and future queer marriages and weaken additional anti-discrimination protections.
In its nearly quarter century of universe, the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Commandment has been on the front lines of LGBTQ rights. Its amicus short in the Obergefell case was instrumental, with Justice Anthony Kennedy citing information from the institute on the number of homosexual couples raising children as a deciding factor in the landmark decision.
“There were claims that allowing lgbtq+ couples to marry would somehow devalue or diminish marriage for everyone, including different-sex couples,&r
Obergefell v. Hodges ()
Excerpt: Majority Opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy
The identification and protection of fundamental rights is an enduring part of the judicial duty to interpret the Constitution. That responsibility, however, “has not been reduced to any formula.” Rather, it requires courts to exercise reasoned opinion in identifying interests of the person so fundamental that the State must accord them its respect. . . . That process is guided by many of the alike considerations relevant to investigation of other constitutional provisions that set forth broad principles rather than specific requirements. History and tradition guide and discipline this inquiry but do not set its outer boundaries. That method respects our history and learns from it without allowing the past alone to control the present.
The nature of injustice is that we may not always view it in our have times. The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to realize the extent of liberty in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a
In the final paragraph of the Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage, formally known as Obergefell v Hodges, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy writes about definition of love and marriage:
"No union is more profound than marriage, for it embod- ies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people be- approach something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases protest, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to locate its fulfillment for themselves. Their desire is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They request for equal dignity in the eyes of the commandment. The Constitution grants them that right.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.
It is so ordered."
Obergefell v. Hodges
Overview
Obergefell v. Hodges is a landmark case in which on June 26, , the Supreme Court of the Together States held, in decision, that state bans on same-sex marriage and on recognizing same sex marriages duly performed in other jurisdictions are unconstitutional under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy asserted that the right to marry is a fundamental right “inherent in the liberty of the person” and is therefore protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the states from depriving any person of “life, liberty or property without the due process of law.” The marriage right is also guaranteed by the equal protection clause, by virtue of the close connection between liberty and equality. In this decision Justice Kennedy also declared that “the reason marriage is fundamental…apply with equal force to same-sex couples”, so they may “exercise the fundamental right to marry.” The majority decision wa