Obergefell v. Hodges (2015): Same-Sex Marriage Across the US

Obergefell v. Hodges is the landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, on 26 June 2015, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. By a 5–4 vote, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires every state to license marriages between two people of the same sex and to recognise such marriages performed in other states. The ruling ended a patchwork of state laws and made marriage equality the law across the whole country.

Background: from state bans to growing recognition

For most of American history marriage law was set by the states. In 1972 the Supreme Court dismissed a same-sex couple’s appeal in Baker v. Nelson, and in the 1990s, after a Hawaii court suggested that a ban might be unconstitutional, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (1996), which defined marriage for federal purposes as between a man and a woman. Many states added bans to their laws and constitutions.

The legal tide began to turn in the 2000s. In Lawrence v. Texas (2003) the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalising gay sex. Later that year the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state must allow same-sex marriage, and the first weddings took place there on 17 May 2004. Abroad, the Netherlands had already become the first country to open marriage to same-sex couples in 2001.

In United States v. Windsor (2013) the Supreme Court struck down the section of the Defense of Marriage Act that denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages. Federal courts then struck down state bans one after another. By mid-2015, same-sex marriage was legal in 36 states and the District of Columbia.

The cases

Not every court agreed. On 6 November 2014 the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, creating a split among the circuits that the Supreme Court needed to resolve. The Court agreed to hear the cases on 16 January 2015 and combined them under the name of the Ohio case.

The lead plaintiff, Jim Obergefell, had married his partner of more than twenty years, John Arthur, in Maryland in July 2013. Arthur was dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and the couple flew to Baltimore in a medical plane to marry on the airport tarmac. Ohio refused to recognise the marriage, so Obergefell sued to be listed as Arthur’s spouse on his death certificate; Arthur died in October 2013. Richard Hodges, the defendant, was director of the Ohio Department of Health.

The other plaintiffs included April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, nurses in Michigan who wanted to adopt each other’s children, and couples from Kentucky and Tennessee. The Court heard oral argument on 28 April 2015, with the civil rights lawyer Mary Bonauto, who had won the Goodridge case, arguing for the couples on the main question.

The decision

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had also written the Court’s opinions in Lawrence and Windsor, wrote for the majority. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The Court held that marriage is a fundamental right protected by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Kennedy described four principles: the right to personal choice in marriage, the special nature of a two-person union, the protection marriage gives to children and families, and marriage as a keystone of social order. He drew heavily on Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 case that struck down bans on interracial marriage. The opinion ends with the much-quoted words: “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

The dissents

All four dissenting justices wrote separate opinions. Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, argued that the Constitution did not settle the question and that it should have been left to voters and legislatures. He read part of his dissent aloud from the bench, an unusual step.

Justice Scalia sharply criticised the majority for making policy instead of interpreting the law. Justice Thomas argued that the Constitution’s idea of liberty protected freedom from government action rather than a right to government benefits, and Justice Samuel Alito warned that the decision would be used to stigmatise those with traditional religious views about marriage.

Reaction on the day

Crowds had gathered outside the Supreme Court on the morning of 26 June 2015 and the announcement was greeted with cheers. That evening the White House was lit in the rainbow colours of the Pride flag. President Barack Obama, who had announced his personal support for same-sex marriage in 2012, praised the ruling in a statement from the Rose Garden and telephoned Jim Obergefell to congratulate him.

Reaction was divided. Supporters celebrated it as a victory for equality comparable to the great civil rights rulings of the 20th century, and couples queued for licences in several of the states whose bans had just fallen. Many religious leaders and conservative politicians criticised the decision, arguing that it overrode the democratic choices of voters and threatened religious freedom. Some state officials initially said they would delay issuing licences, but almost all complied within days.

The date carried extra meaning for supporters. Lawrence v. Texas had been decided on 26 June 2003 and United States v. Windsor on 26 June 2013, both also written by Justice Kennedy, so the same date marked three of the Court’s most important gay rights rulings. Kennedy, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, had become the decisive vote on the issue and retired from the Court in 2018.

Consequences and legacy

Most states began issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples within days. A small number of officials resisted; in Kentucky, a county clerk who refused to issue licences on religious grounds was briefly jailed for contempt of court in September 2015. The ruling also raised continuing debates about religious liberty, such as cases involving businesses that declined to serve same-sex weddings.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, some supporters of marriage equality worried that Obergefell could be reconsidered, since both decisions relied on the Due Process Clause. Congress responded with the Respect for Marriage Act, signed by President Joe Biden on 13 December 2022, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and required recognition of valid marriages across state lines.

Timeline

• 1996, September: The Defense of Marriage Act is signed into law.
• 2003, 26 June: Lawrence v. Texas strikes down laws against gay sex.
• 2004, 17 May: Massachusetts becomes the first US state to issue same-sex marriage licences.
• 2013, 26 June: United States v. Windsor strikes down a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act.
• 2014, 6 November: The Sixth Circuit upholds bans in four states.
• 2015, 16 January: The Supreme Court agrees to hear the cases.
• 2015, 28 April: Oral argument at the Supreme Court.
• 2015, 26 June: The Court rules 5–4 in favour of the couples.
• 2022, 13 December: The Respect for Marriage Act is signed.

Why it matters

Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex marriage legal in every US state and gave it the protection of the Constitution. It marked the culmination of decades of legal and social change and remains one of the most significant civil rights rulings of the 21st century.