Due process clause 14th amendment full#

This dynamic can be seen in the Nation’s experience with gay and lesbian rights. Changed understandings of marriage are characteristic of a Nation where new dimensions of freedom become apparent to new generations.

These new insights have strengthened, not weakened, the institution. Changes, such as the decline of arranged marriages and the abandonment of the law of coverture, have worked deep transformations in the structure of marriage, affecting aspects of marriage once viewed as essential. (2) The history of marriage is one of both continuity and change. But the petitioners, far from seeking to devalue marriage, seek it for themselves because of their respect-and need-for its privileges and responsibilities, as illustrated by the pe titioners’ own experiences. To the respondents, it would demean a timeless institution if marriage were extended to same-sex couples. (1) The history of marriage as a union between two persons of the opposite sex marks the beginning of these cases. (a) Before turning to the governing principles and precedents, it is appropriate to note the history of the subject now before the Court. Held: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State. Each District Court ruled in petitioners’ favor, but the Sixth Circuit consolidated the cases and reversed.

Due process clause 14th amendment full#

The petitioners, 14 same-sex couples and two men whose same-sex partners are deceased, filed suits in Federal District Courts in their home States, claiming that respondent state officials violate the Fourteenth Amendment by denying them the right to marry or to have marriages lawfully performed in another State given full recognition. Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.