The Supreme Court has voted 5-4 to require states to recognize same-sex marriage on 14th Amendment grounds.
Read the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states
The ruling means all states should soon allow same-sex couples to marry, but some states may try to briefly resist the Supreme Court’s decision.
Legal experts and LGBT advocates widely expected the Supreme Court to rule that states’ same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional, based on years of legal precedent in marriage cases.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion in the case, also wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Windsor that struck down the federal ban on same-sex marriages in 2013 with a legal rationale that could apply to states’ bans. He argued that the federal ban violated constitutional protections and discriminated against same-sex couples by preventing them from fully accessing “laws pertaining to Social Security, housing, taxes, criminal sanctions, copyright, and veterans’ benefits.”
In the majority opinion for the Obergefell v. Hodges, Kennedy wrote, “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. [The challengers] ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
Read the full decision below.
Read the full decision here.
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