Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf
Page Number: 31

26 

OBERGEFELL v. HODGES 

Opinion of the Court 

Thomas Kostura now ask whether Tennessee can deny to
one who has served this Nation the basic dignity of recog-
nizing  his  New  York  marriage.   Properly  presented  with
the  petitioners’  cases,  the  Court  has  a  duty  to  address
these claims and answer these questions.

Indeed, faced with a disagreement among the Courts of
Appeals—a  disagreement  that  caused 
impermissible 
geographic  variation  in  the  meaning  of  federal  law—the
Court  granted  review  to  determine  whether  same-sex 
couples may exercise the right to marry.  Were the Court 
to  uphold  the  challenged  laws  as  constitutional,  it  would 
teach  the  Nation  that  these  laws  are  in  accord  with  our 
society’s  most  basic  compact.    Were  the  Court  to  stay  its
hand  to  allow  slower,  case-by-case  determination  of  the 
required availability of specific public benefits to same-sex 
couples, it still would deny gays and lesbians many rights 
and responsibilities intertwined with marriage. 

The  respondents  also  argue  allowing  same-sex  couples
to wed will harm marriage as an institution by leading to 
fewer  opposite-sex  marriages.  This  may  occur,  the  re-
spondents  contend,  because  licensing  same-sex  marriage
severs  the  connection  between  natural  procreation  and
marriage.  That argument, however, rests on a counterin-
tuitive  view  of  opposite-sex  couple’s  decisionmaking  pro-
cesses  regarding  marriage  and  parenthood.  Decisions 
about  whether  to  marry  and  raise  children  are  based  on
many  personal,  romantic,  and  practical  considerations; 
and  it  is  unrealistic  to  conclude  that  an  opposite-sex  cou-
ple  would  choose  not  to  marry  simply  because  same-sex 
couples may do so.  See Kitchen v. Herbert, 755 F. 3d 1193, 
1223  (CA10  2014)  (“[I]t  is  wholly  illogical  to  believe  that
state  recognition  of  the  love  and  commitment  between 
same-sex couples will alter the most intimate and personal
decisions of opposite-sex couples”).  The respondents have
not  shown  a  foundation  for  the  conclusion  that  allowing 
same-sex  marriage  will  cause  the  harmful  outcomes  they