TF Cornerstone recognizes the historic news leading into the last week of PRIDE month 2015. In June, SCOTUS confirmed that all consenting adults in the country deserve the equal human right to join the one they love in a civil union in the eyes of the law, regardless of gender, in accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Legal Journey to Marriage Equality
Here is a robust summary of the United States Supreme Court decision, handed down in late June 2015, via Wikipedia:
Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. (2015), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held in a 5–4 decision that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Decided on June 26, 2015, Obergefell requires all states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to recognize same-sex marriages validly performed in other jurisdictions.
Case: OBERGEFELL v. HODGES
The consolidation of 14 cases brought to their local courts concerning this issue in the following states: Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.
Here are the final words in the SCOTUS Majority Opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy (joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan):
No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered.