Law Commons^™

The Impact Of Obergefell: Tradition Marriage's New Lease On Life, David Pimentel

Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in June 2015 provided a dramatic turn in America's ongoing debate over same-sex marriage. Justice Kennedy's opinion speaks in emotionally evocative terms about the compelling societal and personal significance of marriage, holding that the right to marry is a fundamental right under the Fourteenth Amendment, a right that extends to same-sex couples. Justice Kennedy's rhetoric about the importance of marriage is noteworthy, even curious, given marriage's steady decline over the past 50 years. Just when it seemed that marriage was losing its significance in our society-because marriages are more easily ended, because …