9 years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled marriage a constitutional right for same-sex couples across the country in Obergefell v. Hodges.
The court ruled 5–4 to strike down Ohio’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.
Justice Anthony Kennedy penned the Court’s majority opinion:
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the case, sued Ohio in 2013 after the state refused to list him as his husband’s spouse on his death certificate.
As the nation marks nine years since Obergefell v. Hodges, here are several GIFs from our partners celebrating marriage equality.
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