Marriage a Right for Same-Sex Couples in U.S. Supreme Court Decision

In a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, same-sex marriage will be legal nationwide.

The decision was authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was joined by the four more liberal judges.

According to the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, “The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State.”

Virginia couples began marrying in October 2014, after the court refused to stay an 4th Circuit Appeals Court decision that marriage was a right for same-sex couples.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, had refused to defend the state’s marriage ban in court. He said in a statement Tuesday that the work for equality in Virginia doesn’t end with marriage.

“I look forward to helping protect our workers from discrimination based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, and to making communities safer for LGBT Virginians of all ages,” Herring said. “Today’s ruling is a giant step in that direction.”

Religious leaders who have campaigned against marriage equality voiced their opposition to the ruling.

“We call on Catholics and those concerned for the common good to continue to pray, live and speak out with charity about the true nature of marriage,” read a statement from Bishop Paul S. Loverde and Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of the Virginia Catholic Conference. “The truth cannot be marginalized.”

How We Got Here

An impossible act 12 years ago, same-sex marriage now exists in 37 states, primarily due to a wave of court decisions, along with the actions of a handful of state legislators and voter referendums.

The key victory came in a Supreme Court decision in 2013. In a 5-4 decision, the justices struck down portions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The decision didn’t address equality nationwide, but the reasoning used by the court would be applied again and again in lower court decisions that overturned state bans.

In October 2014, the Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from same-sex marriage opponents in five states, paving the way for nuptials in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and eventually ending bans in Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

That move by the justices was largely seen as the first indication that the Supreme Court was prepared to address the marriage issue. In January, the justices announced they would consider the 6th District case where the appeals court upheld same-sex marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.

Today’s ruling comes during a time of historic support for same-sex-marriage. American’s attitudes have shifted swiftly and dramatically in the last decade, according to public opinion polls. Only 27 percent of Americans thought gay marriage should be legal when the Gallup Poll began posing the question in 1996; last month, support had soared to 60 percent, up from 55 percent just a year ago.

Photo: Flickr/CreativeCommons/Ted Eytan