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yesterday

Decade After Obergefell, Marriage Equality Confronts Renewed Legal Threats

Conservative court signals have spurred advocates to reinforce legal safeguards in response to renewed state-level challenges to marriage equality.

Demonstrators stand in front of a rainbow flag of the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. The Supreme Court is set to hear historic arguments in cases that could make same-sex marriage the law of the land. The justices are meeting Tuesday to offer the first public indication of where they stand in the dispute over whether states can continue defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, or whether the Constitution gives gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.
In this June 26, 2015 file photo, a man holds a US and a rainbow flag outside the Supreme Court in Washington after the court legalized gay marriage nationwide.
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Overview

  • Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have raised doubts about Obergefell in recent opinions, fueling anxiety over its potential reversal.
  • At least nine Republican-led states, including Idaho, Michigan and Tennessee, have introduced or passed resolutions urging the Supreme Court to overturn or curb same-sex marriage rights.
  • More than a dozen states have enacted measures to bolster recognition and protection of same-sex marriages should Obergefell be overturned.
  • The Respect for Marriage Act ensures federal recognition for existing same-sex marriages but does not compel states to issue new licenses to same-sex couples.
  • Public support for same-sex marriage stands at 68 percent, and the number of married same-sex couples has more than doubled to roughly 823,000 since 2015.