Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Marriage Equality!

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court held that marriage equality for same-sex couples is required by Constitutional principles of Due Process and Equal Protection.

June 26, 2015 – The United States Supreme Court today ruled in favor of marriage equality for same-sex couples across the nation, holding that states may not prohibit same-sex couples from marrying or deny recognition to marriages already celebrated. Now, same-sex couples will be able to enjoy the legal protections of civil marriage throughout the United States. We in Maryland, where marriage equality has been the law since 2013, congratulate our brothers and sisters across the country. With the issue of marriage now finally resolved, FreeState Legal looks forward to continuing the struggle against the many other pressing legal challenges facing low-income members of the LGBTQ community, including discrimination in employment, health care, and places of public accommodation, legal recognition of parentage, bullying of youth, and mistreatment of prisoners, to name just a few. But today, we celebrate!

The Court’s opinion, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy for a 5-4 majority, is available here:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf