Top 6 Quotes From Supreme Court Marriage Equality Case

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the issue of the right of same-sex couples to marry. The right to marry is a fundamental right available to all. As a result of this decision, now all 50 states and Washington, DC must recognize same-sex marriages and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Here are 6 quotes form the Obergefell v. Hodges decision that are worthy of note:

“Excluding same-sex couples from marriage thus conflicts with the central premise of the right to marry. Without the recognition, stability and predictability marriage offers, their children suffer the stigma of knowing their families are somehow lesser…The marriage laws at issue here thus harm and humiliate the children of same-sex couples.”
 “The right to marry is fundamental as a matter of history and tradition, but right come not from ancient sources alone. They rise, too, from a better informed understanding of how constitutional imperatives define a liberty that remains urgent in our own era.”
 “Under the Constitution, same-sex couples seek in marriage the same legal treatment as opposite-sex couple, and it would disparage their choices and diminish their personhood to deny them this right.”
 “It is now clear that the challenged laws burden the liberty of same-sex couples, and it must be further acknowledged that they abridge central precepts of equality.”
 “These considerations lead to the conclusion that the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.”
 “The Court now holds that same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry. No long may this right be denied to them.”