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Americans Have Right to Same-Sex Marriage, Supreme Court Holds

Supporters of same-sex marriage march in Columbus last year. (Jo Ingles / Ohio Public Radio)
Supporters of same-sex marriage march in Columbus last year.

No state may lawfully ban same-sex marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision, overturning prohibition on such unions in Ohio and across the country. 

The lead plaintiff in the case was a Cincinnati man, James Obergefell, who sued to have his marriage recognized in Ohio on the death certificate of his late husband, John Arthur. The couple had traveled to Maryland to wed.

"They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law," Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the majority opinion, wrote of same-sex couples seeking to marry. "The Constitution grants them that right."

Ohio voters passed a state constitutional amendment in 2004 defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. This decision from the court swept that ban away. Shortly after the opinioin was issued Friday morning, judges in Cuyahoga County began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Jessie Hill, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, said today's opinion definitively puts an end to state bans on same-sex marriage, though she said it was possible some counties across the country could delay in following the court's decision.

"There could be political resisitence, there could be bureaucratic resistance, but it is now officially the law of the land," Hill said. 

But there was no indication that leading Ohio officials intended to resist the court. 

"While Ohio argued that the Supreme Court should let this issue ultimately be decided by the voters, the Court has now made its decision," Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican who had defended the state's ban on same-sex marriage against the Obergefell suit, said in an emailed statement.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is considering a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, indicated through a spokesman that his state would abide by the court's decision.

"The governor has always believed in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman," Rob Nichols, press secretary to the governor, wrote in an email, "but our nation's highest court has spoken and we must respect its decision."

Read the full decision here.

 

 

 

Nick Castele was a senior reporter covering politics and government for Ideastream Public Media. He worked as a reporter for Ideastream from 2012-2022.