Constitutional Law – Equal protection – same-sex marriage

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U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Constitutional Law – Equal protection – same-sex marriage

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.

The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty. Same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry. Baker v. Nelson is overruled. The State laws challenged by the petitioners in these cases are held invalid to the extent they exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.

The Fourteenth Amendment requires States to recognize same-sex marriages validly performed out of State. Since same-sex couples may now exercise the fundamental right to marry in all States, there is no lawful basis for a State to refuse to recognize a lawful same-sex marriage performed in another State on the ground of its same-sex character.

772 F. 3d 388, reversed.

Kennedy, J.; Roberts, C.J., dissenting; Scalia, J. dissenting; Thomas, J., dissenting; Alito, J., dissenting.

14-556 Obergefell v. Hodges

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