In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision authored by Anthony Kennedy, held that same-sex couples in the United States had the same right to marry as opposite-sex couples. It also held that states had to recognize legal marriages performed in other states. Obergefell expressly overturned the decision in Baker v. Nelson (1971), a Minnesota Supreme Court case that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider via a one-sentence dismissal in 1972, saying that the issue of same-sex marriage did not rise to “a substantial federal question” and was not properly to be heard before the Court. The Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges was predicated on the established right to marriage. The Court concluded that marriage is a fundamental and essential part of an individual’s autonomy and that it is a vital institution, needed to foster lasting, emotional relationships and protect families with children. Moreover, the Court applied the language of the equal protection clause, found in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, to conclude that denying same-sex couples the right to marry violated their rights to equal protection under the law. Obergefell was a landmark piece of civil rights legislation.