Obergefell v. Hodges
Supreme Court of the United States, No. 14-556, 576 U.S. ___ (2015)
Justice Kennedy (Opinion) joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan; dissenting opinions by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution 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 that was lawfully licensed and performed in another state. The Court found the right to marry was a fundamental liberty protected both under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court issued a clear and unequivocal statement that same sex couples may now exercise the fundamental right to marry in all states.
While the statutes before the court were from the states of Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, the Court’s ruling would invalidate the current Texas Family Code section 2.001(b), which prohibits the issuance of a marriage license to persons of the same sex, and section 2.401(a), which limits the formation of an informal marriage, generally known as a common law marriage, to only a man and woman. The Court recognized the far reaching impact of marital status in many other areas, such as taxation, inheritance and property rights, medical decision-making authority, adoption, and health insurance.
