U.S. Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage in all 50 states

 


On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Obergefell v. Hodges. The Court held that the recognition and provision of same-sex marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

It requires all states to issue a license to marry between all people of the same sex and it requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages validly performed in other jurisdictions.

Thirty-seven of the 50 states and the District of Columbia already allow gay marriage, and Friday’s ruling means the others will have to follow suit. The ruling only affects state laws. Religious institutions can still choose whether or not to marry same-sex couples.

The majority opinion came from Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Anthony Kennedy.

The four dissenting judges included Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.

A passage from the Supreme Court’s majority opinion states:

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, 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 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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