{"id":109410,"date":"2025-02-27T13:02:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T21:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/27\/the-growing-fight-against-marriage-equality\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T13:02:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T21:02:53","slug":"the-growing-fight-against-marriage-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/27\/the-growing-fight-against-marriage-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Growing Fight Against Marriage Equality"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Ted Eytan \/ Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marriage equality enjoys widespread support in the United States \u2014 the latest Gallup poll puts support of the right at 69 percent<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t mean shit to the the Supreme Court<\/a>. The conservative majority on the Court\u00a0is gunning for\u00a0Obergefell<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0the landmark case<\/a>\u00a0that held there is a\u00a0federal constitutional right<\/a>\u00a0to same-sex marriage. Samuel Alito\u2019s unhinged dissent in the case \u2014 that\u00a0he still can\u2019t let go of<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 sets the stage for an eventual elimination of the right. Alito\u2019s majority opinion overturning established precedent guaranteeing the right to reproductive freedom in\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0creates parallels<\/a>\u00a0between the right established in\u00a0Obergefell v. Hodges\u00a0<\/em>and reproductive freedom, as they\u2019re not \u201cdeeply rooted in history.\u201d And the\u00a0concurrence written by Clarence Thomas<\/a> explicitly says the Court should \u201creconsider\u201d its jurisprudence on marriage equality (as well as the Court\u2019s holdings on consensual sexual contact and contraception).<\/p>\n

The conservative Court is getting an assist from states<\/a>. Newsweek has put together a helpful compilation<\/a> of all the threats to marriage equality. And it isn\u2019t great. <\/p>\n

State legislatures in five states are trying to tee up the issue for the Court, though they\u2019re in various stages. In Idaho and North Dakota, House legislatures have approved measures asking SCOTUS to overturn Obergefell<\/em>. In Wyoming and South Dakota, similar measures have been introduced. In Michigan, this week, a resolution was introduced that condemns the decision as being \u201cat odds with the Constitution of the United States and the principles upon which the United States is established.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, resolutions do not a case or controversy make. As Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, notes, \u201cIf a state sought to go further\u2014to pass or enforce a law that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples, in clear violation of\u00a0Obergefell<\/em>\u2014a challenge to that law could quickly make its way to the Supreme Court.\u201d But that doesn\u2019t feel so far off.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post The Growing Fight Against Marriage Equality<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Ted Eytan \/ Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marriage equality enjoys widespread support in the United States \u2014 the latest Gallup poll puts support of the right at 69 percent<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t mean shit to the the Supreme Court<\/a>. The conservative majority on the Court\u00a0is gunning for\u00a0Obergefell<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0the landmark case<\/a>\u00a0that held there is a\u00a0federal constitutional right<\/a>\u00a0to same-sex marriage. Samuel Alito\u2019s unhinged dissent in the case \u2014 that\u00a0he still can\u2019t let go of<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 sets the stage for an eventual elimination of the right. Alito\u2019s majority opinion overturning established precedent guaranteeing the right to reproductive freedom in\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0creates parallels<\/a>\u00a0between the right established in\u00a0Obergefell v. Hodges\u00a0<\/em>and reproductive freedom, as they\u2019re not \u201cdeeply rooted in history.\u201d And the\u00a0concurrence written by Clarence Thomas<\/a> explicitly says the Court should \u201creconsider\u201d its jurisprudence on marriage equality (as well as the Court\u2019s holdings on consensual sexual contact and contraception).<\/p>\n

The conservative Court is getting an assist from states<\/a>. Newsweek has put together a helpful compilation<\/a> of all the threats to marriage equality. And it isn\u2019t great. <\/p>\n

State legislatures in five states are trying to tee up the issue for the Court, though they\u2019re in various stages. In Idaho and North Dakota, House legislatures have approved measures asking SCOTUS to overturn Obergefell<\/em>. In Wyoming and South Dakota, similar measures have been introduced. In Michigan, this week, a resolution was introduced that condemns the decision as being \u201cat odds with the Constitution of the United States and the principles upon which the United States is established.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, resolutions do not a case or controversy make. As Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, notes, \u201cIf a state sought to go further\u2014to pass or enforce a law that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples, in clear violation of\u00a0Obergefell<\/em>\u2014a challenge to that law could quickly make its way to the Supreme Court.\u201d But that doesn\u2019t feel so far off.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Ted Eytan \/ Flickr) Marriage equality enjoys widespread support in the United States \u2014 the latest Gallup poll puts support of the right at 69 percent. But that doesn\u2019t mean shit to the the Supreme Court. The conservative majority on the Court\u00a0is gunning for\u00a0Obergefell,\u00a0the landmark case\u00a0that held there is a\u00a0federal constitutional right\u00a0to same-sex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-8i99xg.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}