Obergefell v. Hodges

Facts

Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The petitioners were 14 same-sex couples and two men whose same-sex partners had died. The respondents were the state officials responsible for enforcing those laws. James Obergefell and John Arthur lived in Ohio. In 2011 Arthur was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive disease with no known cure. The two traveled to Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal, and married inside a medical transport plane on the tarmac in Baltimore. Arthur died three months later. Ohio law did not allow Obergefell to be listed as the surviving spouse on Arthur's death certificate. April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, both nurses, were raising three children in Michigan. Michigan allowed only opposite-sex married couples or single people to adopt, so each child could have only one of the women as a legal parent. Ijpe DeKoe, an Army Reserve sergeant, married Thomas Kostura in New York before DeKoe deployed to Afghanistan. When they settled in Tennessee, their lawful marriage was not recognized there. The petitioners claimed the respondents violated the Fourteenth Amendment by denying them the right to marry, or by refusing full recognition to marriages lawfully performed in another State.

Issues

1. Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?
2. Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a State to recognize a same-sex marriage that was lawfully licensed and performed in another State?

Holding

Same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry in all States. The challenged laws are invalid to the extent they exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms as opposite-sex couples, and no State may refuse to recognize a lawful same-sex marriage performed in another State because of its same-sex character.