Obergefell v. Hodges

Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The 5-4 ruling, with a majority opinion authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, required all fifty states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories to perform and recognize same-sex marriages on the same terms as opposite-sex marriages; the case arose from plaintiffs in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee whose district court wins were reversed by a Sixth Circuit ruling that created a split with other circuits and led to Supreme Court review. Decided on 26 June 2015, Obergefell overturned the earlier precedent Baker v. Nelson and established same-sex marriage throughout the United States and its territories.