After months of briefing, argument and anxious anticipation, today the Supreme Court announced its 5-4 opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, 14-556, holding that 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.” Justice Kennedy read the majority’s opinion in this consolidated case – involving plaintiffs from Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee  – guaranteeing equal marriage rights in all fifty states.

“The ancient origins of marriage confirm its centrality, but it has not stood in isolation from developments in law and society. The history of marriage is one of both conti­nuity and change. That institution – even as confined to opposite-sex relations – has evolved over time.” – Justice Kennedy, Slip op., p. 6

Five Supreme Court Litigation Clinic students – James Barton (’15), Samuel Byker (’16), Andrew Kushner (’15), Ashley Robertson (’16), and Alexandria Twinem (’16) had the great fortune to work on this case – on behalf of six plaintiff couples from Kentucky and their counsel – in the related matter of Bourke v. Beshear.  Together with the clinic’s faculty, the students spent untold hours researching, drafting and crafting the merits briefs and flew to Washington, DC to help the legal team prepare for the April 28th oral  argument.

Today’s opinion falls on the second anniversary of the Court’s ruling in USA v. Windsor (which the Clinic also worked on), a pivotal case out of the Second Circuit that paved the way to marriage equality nationwide.

For further analysis of today’s decision, see SCOTUSblog and The New York Times and related prior MLC posts here and here.  ◊