Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf
Page Number: 97.0

2 

OBERGEFELL v. HODGES 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

these  cases,  however,  is  not  what  States  should  do  about 
same-sex marriage but whether the Constitution answers 
that  question  for  them.  It  does  not.  The  Constitution 
leaves  that  question  to  be  decided  by  the  people  of  each 
State. 

I 

The Constitution says nothing about a right to same-sex 
marriage,  but  the  Court  holds  that  the  term  “liberty”  in
the  Due  Process  Clause  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment 
encompasses this right.  Our Nation was founded upon the
principle  that  every  person  has  the  unalienable  right  to 
liberty, but liberty is a term of many meanings.  For clas-
sical  liberals,  it  may  include  economic  rights  now  limited 
by  government  regulation.  For  social  democrats,  it 
may include the right to a variety of government benefits. 
For  today’s  majority,  it  has  a  distinctively  postmodern 
meaning.

To  prevent  five  unelected  Justices  from  imposing  their
personal  vision  of  liberty  upon  the  American  people,  the 
Court  has  held  that  “liberty”  under  the  Due  Process 
Clause  should  be  understood  to  protect  only  those  rights 
that are “ ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradi-
tion.’ ”  Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U. S. 701, 720–721 
(1997).  And it is beyond dispute that the right to same-sex 
marriage is not among those rights.  See United States v. 
Windsor,  570  U. S.  ___,  ___  (2013)  (ALITO,  J.,  dissenting)
(slip op., at 7).  Indeed: 

“In  this  country,  no  State  permitted  same-sex  mar-
riage until the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
held  in  2003  that  limiting  marriage  to  opposite-sex 
See 
couples  violated 
Goodridge  v. Department of Public Health, 440 Mass. 

the  State  Constitution. 

—————— 

riage  licenses  and  conferring  those  special  benefits  and  obligations
 
provided under state law for married persons.