Obergefell v. Hodges
Description: Same-sex couples filed a lawsuit in federal court that seeks to have Ohio’s constitutional amendment affirming marriage as the union of one man and one woman declared unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has consolidated the case with three other cases within the 6th Circuit: DeBoer v. Snyder, Tanco v. Haslam, and Bourke v. Beshear.
Supreme Court: Americans cannot affirm marriage as one man, one woman
Summary of opinion and dissents | Excerpts from opinion and dissents
Alliance Defending Freedom and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office submitted one of the more than 60 briefs filed in defense of the marriage laws challenged in Obergefell v. Hodges and three other cases consolidated with it.
“The Supreme Court has stripped all Americans of our freedom to debate and decide marriage policy through the democratic process,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jim Campbell, director of the ADF Center for Marriage and Family. “The freedom to democratically address the most pressing social issues of the day is the heart of liberty. The court took that freedom from the people and overrode the considered judgment of tens of millions of Americans who recently reaffirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The court cast aside the understanding of marriage’s nature and purpose that diverse cultures and faiths across the globe have embraced for millennia.”
In a strongly worded dissent from the high court’s opinion reversing the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “Until the courts put a stop to it, public debate over same-sex marriage displayed American democracy at its best.”
Taking direct aim at the majority’s analysis, Scalia observed that the majority opinion “is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic.… The world does not expect logic and precision in poetry or inspirational pop-philosophy; it demands them in the law. The stuff contained in today’s opinion has to diminish this Court’s reputation for clear thinking and sober analysis.”
“If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: ‘The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,’ I would hide my head in a bag,” Scalia added. “The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.”
“Americans who understand the good of marriage still have great opportunities to communicate and model how the unique union of one man and one woman benefits society,” Campbell explained. “Although the ongoing debate about marriage now enters a new phase, it is far from over. ADF will continue to advocate the truth about marriage and redouble its efforts to ensure that those who believe in the long-recognized definition of marriage will be free to hold, express, and live out their beliefs.”
For more than a decade, ADF has been the leading legal advocacy organization defending laws and government policies that affirm the truth about marriage.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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ABOUT Jim Campbell
Jim Campbell serves as chief legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he leads the U.S. Legal Advocacy team. In that role, Campbell oversees all U.S. litigation teams, Allied Legal Affairs, the Church and Ministry Alliance, and advocacy strategy. Prior to joining ADF in March 2023, Campbell was the solicitor general in the office of Nebraska Attorney General Douglas J. Peterson and Michael T. Hilgers. In that role, he represented the state of Nebraska in cases before state and federal courts and oversaw all civil appeals for the state. In February 2023, Campbell argued Biden v. Nebraska before the U.S. Supreme Court, a case in which Nebraska and five other states challenged the Biden administration’s attempt to forgive over $400 billion in federal student loans for over 40 million individuals. Before joining the Nebraska attorney general’s office in January 2020, Campbell worked as senior counsel with ADF. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Akron School of Law, where he graduated summa cum laude in 2006. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Campbell is admitted to the state bars of Ohio, Arizona, and Nebraska. He is also admitted to multiple federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.