June 26, 2015: Obergefell v. Hodges

June 26, 2015, 10 years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Obergefell v. Hodges 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 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Jim Obergefell was a high school German teacher in Sandusky, Ohio, who met IT director John Arthur in the early 1990s. Arthur developed ALS, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease. Knowing he was dying, and wanting to make it legal and get the legal protections that came with it, the two men flew to Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal, and were married on July 11, 2013. Arthur died on October 22, only 3 months later.

Jim Obergefell (left) and John Arthur, on the plane to Maryland

Due to Ohio's law banning same-sex marriage, Obergefell could not be listed as the legal spouse on Arthur's death certificate. So he sued Richard Hodges, who held the office denying Obergefell his rights, that of the Director of the Ohio Department of Health.

The Supreme Court's ruling struck down all State laws that barred same-sex marriage, most of which had been passed in the 2000s, during the Administration of evangelical "Christian" George W. Bush, as a backlash against the gains of the gay rights movement in the 1990s, during the Administration of President Bill Clinton.

It was a 5-4 vote. It was known from the beginning that Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, all militantly conservative Catholics appointed by Republican Presidents, would vote to uphold their religious belief, and not the 14th Amendment.

It was known from the beginning that the 4 Justices who had been appointed by Democratic Presidents -- Sonia Sotomayor, a Catholic; and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, all Jewish -- would recognize that the 14th Amendment took precedence over any State's law, and over anyone's prejudices, whether inspired by religion or not.

The question was over the remaining 2 Justices, both appointed by Republican Presidents: Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy had long been a "swing Justice," deciding cases that were otherwise split 4-4; and Roberts had sometimes surprised people who expected him to vote the conservative way, but ended up finding ways to reconcile the more liberal position with the Constitution.

Not only did both men side with Obergefell, but Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. He cited not merely "equal protection," but "equal dignity in the eyes of the law."

In the wake of the current Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022, striking down the national right to an abortion, Justice Thomas has said that he wants the Court to re-examine certain decisions he called "wrong," including Obergefell v. Hodges. In other words, with the Court now having a 6-3 archconservative supermajority, the greatest victory in the history of the gay rights movement may not be final.

In 2022, Obergefell ran for the Ohio House of Representatives. Hodges served in that House from 1993 to 1999, albeit in a different district. Running as a Democrat against a Republican incumbent seeking a 3rd term, Obergefell lost the election.