The right for an entire country to allow unions between same-sex couples took another great stride on Monday, October 6, when the United States Supreme Court upheld appeals court rulings to allow same-sex marriage to take place in five states. This increased the number of states allowing same-sex marriage from 19 to 24, giving couples in nearly half of the United States this option to legally tie the knot.
The Supreme Court refused to entangle itself in the debates surrounding the topic, announcing the decision without any further details. This decision cleared the path for same-sex couples in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin to begin setting dates for their nuptials. The Commonwealth of Virginia began marrying couples as soon as 1 p.m. on that same day.
Paving the Way for Future Victories
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, a non-profit organization that campaigns for same-sex couples to have the right to marry within the United States says, “We are one country, with one Constitution, and the court’s delay in affirming the freedom to marry nationwide prolongs the patchwork of state-to-state discrimination and the harms and indignity that the denial of marriage still inflicts on too many couples in too many places.”
It is suspected that the federal appeals courts holding jurisdiction over other states that ban same-sex unions, Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming, will strike those down as well. This would bring the number of states allowing same-sex marriage to 30, or sixty percent of the country including Washington, D.C.
Walter E. Dellinger III, an acting United States solicitor general under the administration of President Clinton, states that should these other six states join the ones allowing same-sex marriage, that there may be no turning back once it happens, saying, “Once a substantial part of the country has experienced gay marriage, then the court will be more willing to finish the job.”
Furthermore if the Circuit Court of Appeals renounces bans denying same-sex marriage in Nevada and Idaho, which could take place quickly on the heels of the recent announcement, then the number could shoot up to 35 states. This is because the right for same-sex couples to legalize their union in Alaska, Arizona, and Montana also hinges on what happens for those two states.
Is This an Issue for the People or the Court?
Those who oppose unions between same-sex couples have no plans to throw in the towel despite the ruling from the Supreme Court. Byron Babione, who serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, the group responsible for defending the bans on same-sex marriage in both Oklahoma and Virginia says that the issue is one for the people of the United States to decide, not the courts.
The high court agreed to stay out of the matter, ruling in 2013 that the federal government has no right to deny marital benefits to same-sex couples. Since taking no position on a ban on same-sex marriage in California and making its decision known, half a dozen other states went on to legalize same-sex marriage. 14 other states overturned marriage bans, but the rules are on hold barring an appeals process such as the one that took place on October 6.
While it is possible that an appeals court might uphold a state-wide ban on unions between same-sex couples.In the event that this does happen the Supreme Court might then step in to overturn it. This is because the number of states allowing same-sex marriage, or wanting to allow unions between same-sex couples, is much higher now than it was in the past couple of years.
Taking Lessons from Past Controversial Judgments
These types of legal decisions are not made lightly. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, understands the importance of not rushing, citing what she learned from the aftermath of Roe v. Wade as an example. The 1973 decision established that all citizens of the United States have a constitutional right to an abortion, which is the procedure to terminate an unborn fetus.
Another example that federal judges used is that of interracial marriage. It was not until 1967, for example, that the court struck down bans preventing interracial couples from entering into a legal union, such as marriage. Even when the number of states legalizing marriage between two couples of different races rose to 34, a large number of Americans still opposed it.
Justice Antonin Scalia gave an assessment of where the situation is headed for Americans in general, stating, “By formally declaring anyone opposed to same-sex marriage an enemy of human decency.” It is one idea with which lower-court judges seem inclined to agree.