The United States Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, on Monday declined to hear an appeal against the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, without giving reasons. “Today, love has won again,” said Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson.
Unions between gays or lesbians have been guaranteed since 2015 by the Supreme Court and Obergefell v. Wade. Hodges, who forced all states in the country that did not recognize such marriages to not only marry them but also recognize their marriages when celebrated elsewhere. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage is not intended for heterosexual couples.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution “requires a state to perform marriage between two persons of the same sex,” and it does so in the name of equality before the law, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his ruling. The 2015 decision was welcomed by left-wing groups, and President Barack Obama hailed it as “a major step on our journey toward equality” and “a victory for America.”
The request to reconsider the decision came from Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, who has stopped issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples, citing religious beliefs. Kim Davis specifically said she acted “under God’s authority.”
800,000 couples are concerned
Except that the members of the Supreme Court have changed since 2015, the year that same-sex marriage was deemed a constitutional right in the United States. Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are now conservative. Fear of setbacks, through the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges, spread across the country.
Most importantly, three years earlier, the American institution had overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade, until now guarantees voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) at the federal level. Since then, the Supreme Court has made states the only competent in this matter and some twenty states have banned or severely restricted access to abortion.
More than 820,000 same-sex married couples currently live in the United States, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. This number has doubled compared to 2015, when this right was extended to the entire country. Nearly 300,000 children are raised by same-sex married couples.
“The Supreme Court has compelling reasons to decline to consider this case rather than challenge the positive gains for couples, children, families and society as a whole in terms of marriage equality,” Mary Bonauto, senior director of LGBTQ Advocates & Legal Defenders, told USA Today before the decision.
