Obergefell v. Hodges

A Student’s Guide to Essential Primary Sources
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Obergefell v. Hodges
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https://doi.org/10.3735/9781961844025.book-part-165

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Abstract

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 Stateshad 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.

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