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The two-decades-long controversy over same-sex marriage in the United States was finally resolved on June 26, 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses required states to allow same-sex couples to marry on the same terms as opposite-sex couples. Under our American system of government, divisive and often abiding disputes may be resolved either through legislation or judicial decisions. In Same-Sex Marriage and American Constitutionalism, Murray Dry explains why the process by which Americans arrive at these resolutions can be as important as the substance of the resolutions themselves. By taking up the question of same-sex marriage, Dry excavates the bases of why and how Americans decide as we do (and as we have done when major questions arose in the past; think: school integration, abortion, gun control, and campaign finance). As Professor Dry retraces the path that same-sex marriage took as it wended its way through the political (that is, the legislative) process and through the court system, he finds a vivid framework for the question, “Who should decide?” It’s a question often overlooked, but one that Dry believes should not be. He argues convincingly that it does matter whether the Supreme Court or the legislature makes the final decision—so that court-mandated law does not threaten democratic representative government, and so that legislation does not trample on fundamental constitutional rights.
A clearly written and accessible explanation of the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision, its reasoning, and the consequences and controversies surrounding it.
This edited volume in American constitutionalism places the Supreme Court’s declaration of same-sex marriage rights in U.S. v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) within the context of the Court’s developing understanding of the legal and social status of marriage and the family. Leading scholars in the fields of political science, law, and religion examine the roots of the Court’s affirmation of same-sex rights in a number of areas related to marriage and the family including the right to marry, equality and happiness in marriage, the right to privacy, freedom of association, property rights, parental power, and reproductive rights. Taken together, these essays evaluate the extent to which the Court’s recent marriage rulings both break with and derive from the competing principles of American Constitutionalism.
In 2015 the Supreme Court made history by ruling that the constitution protects the right of same-sex couples to get married. The third edition of perhaps the most influential book on the subject explains the Court's reasoning and what the consequences of the decision have been. The book also explains why the Supreme Court declined to rule that a ban on same-sex marriage was irrational or hateful or that the ban was an indirect form of gender discrimination. Instead, the Court ruled that there is a fundamental constitutional right to marry that covers same-sex couples. The book discusses the dissent's claims that the decision will lead to constitutional protection for polygamy. It also covers the controversy over whether there should be special laws that allow religious business owners not to serve same-sex couples who are married. This book is free of jargon and is accessible to anyone interested in same-sex equality, the Supreme Court or constitutional law generally.
The revised and expanded second edition of Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution makes the case that the Constitution has long protected the right to marry, and that this protection includes the right to marry a person of the same gender. No other book makes this argument. This book addresses other issues, such as why same-sex marriage is completely different, both practically and constitutionally, from polygamy and incest, and it debunks the myth that pro-same-sex marriage decisions have created a backlash against either gays and lesbians or the Democratic Party.
One would think that by now the issue of marriage and the simple right for two people who love one another to be together would be settled. Even in the 21st century, people ask, "What is marriage?" Although the word "marriage" isn't even mentioned in the Constitution, readers will learn why this issue has been a subject of debate for years, whether for interracial or same-sex couples. Primary source documents, quotes, and explanations of Supreme Court rulings help set the scene and tell the evolving tale of equality for marriage rights in the United States.
Rewriting the Supreme Court's landmark gay rights decision Jack Balkin and an all-star cast of legal scholars, sitting as a hypothetical Supreme Court, rewrite the famous 2015 opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry. In eleven incisive opinions, the authors offer the best constitutional arguments for and against the right to same-sex marriage, and debate what Obergefell should mean for the future. In addition to serving as Chief Justice of this imaginary court, Balkin provides a critical introduction to the case. He recounts the story of the gay rights litigation that led to Obergefell, and he explains how courts respond to political mobilizations for new rights claims. The social movement for gay rights and marriage equality is a powerful example of how--through legal imagination and political struggle--arguments once dismissed as "off-the-wall" can later become established in American constitutional law.
Presents oral histories of how same-sex-marriage bans impacted gay couples and their children, and how courts rescued those families.
In Courthouse Democracy and Minority Rights: Same-Sex Marriage in the States, Robert J. Hume examines how the democratization of state courts and state constitutional systems has influenced the capacity of judges to protect minority rights. Through an intensive examination of same-sex marriage policy, Hume shows that democratic innovations like judicial elections and initiative amendment procedures have conditioned the impact of judges on state marriage laws. Using a combination of original and publicly available data, Hume demonstrates that "courthouse democracy" has influenced the behavior of state judges, the reactions of the public to state court decisions, and the long-term policy consequences of these decisions, including the passage of state constitutional amendments. Hume concludes that judges will be capable of producing meaningful social change-and protecting minority rights-only when they have the institutional resources that they need to stand against popular opinion.
In a new preface, Mark Strasser discusses recent developments in the legal battle over same-sex marriages in Hawaii. He anticipates the likely state and nationwide impact of the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision. Mark Strasser examines the issue of same-sex marriage in light of contemporary constitutional and domestic relations law, showing why the usual arguments against recognizing such unions are either weak or irrelevant. The Supreme Court has articulated numerous interests promoted by marriage, all of which apply to same-sex as well as opposite-sex couples. According to Strasser, the argument made most frequently to deny recognition to same-sex unions—that marriage exists to provide a setting for the production and raising of children—is in fact a reason to acknowledge such unions. The claim that marriage is for children biologically related to both parents is refuted in the case law, which treats biological and adopted children as legally indistinguishable. Strasser explains Baehr v. Lewin, the precedent setting case in Hawaii, and addresses the implications of state-by-state decisions to ban or recognize same-sex unions. He analyzes what it would mean to say that a policy violates the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses of the Constitution, and compares biased polices that target gays and lesbians with those that victimize racial minorities. Strasser argues that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is both unconstitutional and a public policy disaster. It does not give states additional rights with respect to which marriages they need not recognize, Strasser explains, but only with respect which divorces they need not recognize. For example, DOMA seems to allow an individual to avoid a court-imposed duty to support an ex-spouse of the same sex simply by changing his or her domicile. Moreover, Strasser argues, DOMA is an open invitation for states to demand exceptions that will wreak havoc in domestic relations law. In a recent response to conservative arguments about marriage, Legally Wed explicates established and involving legal principles, and shows how invidiously these have been applied to the issues of gay rights in general and same-sex unions in particular.