Obergefell v. Hodges is a landmark 2015 Supreme Court case about marriage equality in the United States. The Court held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
The decision mattered because it required every state to license same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. It connected a major civil rights issue to the meaning of liberty, equality, and citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The majority opinion relied on both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. Due process protected marriage as a fundamental liberty, while equal protection prevented states from denying same-sex couples the same legal status given to different-sex couples. The ruling did not come from a new federal statute, but from constitutional interpretation by the Supreme Court.
Its impact reached family law, state authority, civil rights debates, and the role of courts in protecting individual rights.
Key Facts
- Case name and citation: Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015).
- Decision date: June 26, 2015.
- Vote: 5 to 4 in favor of recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
- Constitutional basis: Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause.
- Holding: States must license same-sex marriages and recognize lawful same-sex marriages from other states.
- Majority author: Justice Anthony Kennedy; principal dissenters included Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.
Vocabulary
- Due Process Clause
- The part of the Fourteenth Amendment that protects people from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without fair legal procedures and certain fundamental rights.
- Equal Protection Clause
- The part of the Fourteenth Amendment that requires states to treat people equally under the law unless there is a constitutionally valid reason for different treatment.
- Fundamental right
- A right considered so important to liberty that the government needs a very strong justification to restrict it.
- Majority opinion
- The written explanation of a Supreme Court decision joined by more than half of the justices in a case.
- Dissenting opinion
- A written opinion by one or more justices who disagree with the Court's final decision.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Saying the case created marriage by federal statute is wrong because Obergefell was a constitutional ruling by the Supreme Court, not an act passed by Congress.
- Treating due process and equal protection as the same idea is wrong because due process focuses on liberty and fundamental rights, while equal protection focuses on equal treatment under the law.
- Assuming the ruling applied only to the states in the lawsuit is wrong because Supreme Court constitutional decisions bind all states under the Supremacy Clause.
- Claiming the decision was unanimous is wrong because the Court split 5 to 4, with multiple dissenting opinions.
Practice Questions
- 1 Obergefell was decided in 2015 by a 5 to 4 vote. What fraction and percentage of the nine justices joined the majority opinion?
- 2 If a state refused to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state after June 26, 2015, how many days after the ruling would that refusal be if it occurred on July 10, 2015?
- 3 Explain how the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause work together in the Court's reasoning in Obergefell v. Hodges.