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Page Number: 93

16 

OBERGEFELL v. HODGES 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

practice.7 

Although  our  Constitution  provides  some  protection 
against  such  governmental  restrictions  on  religious  prac-
tices,  the  People  have  long  elected  to  afford  broader  pro-
tections  than  this  Court’s  constitutional  precedents  man-
date.  Had the majority allowed the definition of marriage
to  be  left  to  the  political  process—as  the  Constitution
requires—the  People  could  have  considered  the  religious 
liberty implications of deviating from the traditional defi-
nition  as  part  of  their  deliberative  process.    Instead,  the 
majority’s decision short-circuits that process, with poten-
tially ruinous consequences for religious liberty. 

IV 
Perhaps  recognizing  that  these  cases  do  not  actually
involve  liberty  as  it  has  been  understood,  the  majority 
goes  to  great  lengths  to  assert  that  its  decision  will  ad-
vance the “dignity” of same-sex couples.  Ante, at 3, 13, 26, 
28.8    The  flaw  in  that  reasoning,  of  course,  is  that  the 
Constitution  contains  no  “dignity”  Clause,  and  even  if  it
did,  the  government  would  be  incapable  of  bestowing 
dignity.

Human dignity has long been understood in this country 
to be innate.  When the Framers proclaimed in the Decla-
ration  of  Independence  that  “all  men  are  created  equal” 

—————— 

7 Concerns  about  threats  to  religious  liberty  in  this  context  are  not 
unfounded.  During  the  hey-day  of  antimiscegenation  laws  in  this
country, for instance, Virginia imposed criminal penalties on ministers
who  performed  marriage  in  violation  of  those  laws,  though  their  reli-
gions  would  have  permitted  them  to  perform  such  ceremonies.    Va. 
Code Ann. §20–60 (1960). 

8 The majority also suggests that marriage confers “nobility” on indi-
viduals.  Ante, at 3.  I am unsure what that means.  People may choose 
to  marry  or  not  to  marry.    The  decision  to  do  so  does  not  make  one 
person more “noble” than another.  And the suggestion that Americans 
who choose not to marry are inferior to those who decide to enter such 
relationships is specious.