Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)
On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to license and recognize same-sex marriages. The decision in Obergefell v. Hodges made the United States the twenty-first country to establish marriage equality nationwide and was celebrated as one of the most significant civil rights rulings in decades.
Jim Obergefell and the Case
Jim Obergefell and John Arthur had been together for more than twenty years when Arthur was diagnosed with ALS in 2013. The disease was progressing rapidly, and the couple flew from their home in Cincinnati, Ohio — where same-sex marriage was not recognized — to Maryland to wed on the tarmac of a Baltimore airport, Arthur on a medical transport stretcher. When Arthur died three months later, Ohio refused to list Obergefell as his surviving spouse on the death certificate. Obergefell filed suit. His case was consolidated with challenges from Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and the question before the Court became: does the Constitution compel states to license same-sex marriages, and must states recognize such marriages performed in other states? The Court agreed to hear the consolidated cases and heard oral arguments on April 28, 2015.
Did You Know?
June 26 has become particularly significant in the history of same-sex rights: the Court struck down sodomy laws on June 26, 2003 (Lawrence v. Texas), ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional on June 26, 2013 (United States v. Windsor), and decided Obergefell on June 26, 2015 — three landmark rulings in twelve years, all on the same date.
The Decision
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. Kennedy's opinion argued that marriage is a fundamental right under the liberty protections of the Due Process Clause and that denying it to same-sex couples violated the Equal Protection Clause. In celebrated language, Kennedy wrote: "No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family." The four dissenting justices — Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito — each wrote separately, arguing that the question should be resolved through the democratic process rather than by the courts. Within hours of the decision, same-sex couples who had been barred from marrying in thirteen remaining states began obtaining marriage licenses.
Legacy
The White House was illuminated in rainbow colors on the night of June 26, 2015 — a visual that became one of the era's enduring images. Jim Obergefell, who had fought simply to be listed as his husband's spouse on a death certificate, became an inadvertent icon and went on to advocate publicly for LGBTQ+ rights. The ruling settled the legal question of marriage equality in the United States, though debates over religious exemptions and related discrimination protections continued in legislatures and courts. The Respect for Marriage Act, signed in 2022, codified federal recognition of same-sex marriages in statutory law, providing a legislative backstop should Obergefell ever be revisited.