Author Topic: Supreme Court weighs longshot appeal to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide  (Read 2651 times)

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Online Sighlass

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End of the day, it doesn’t really matter whether you approve or not. It’s done.

Yeah, 81% of our state voted that marriage was between a man and a woman. We didn't want to create special rights for homosexual that wasn't intended since time began. Heck, the liberal courts went full monty on anyone that dared not be swayed by "it is love" crapola. It was an assault on Christianity, it was an attack at the government for daring to believe that they should uphold an institution designed to raise children in the best environments, it was a ploy to get adoption rights, it was joke when shown that most of these marriages were "open" at best. Not to mention, cheaper rates through government means (loans, taxes).

Mark me down in the don't approve and will never approve catagory. One person (Roy Moore) stood for what was right in Alabama, and he was buried politically for daring to defend our state constitution by every crooked way they could find.
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Online Bigun

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Let's add another dimension to this discussion. In 1868 many states remained under martial law and the ratification of the 14th - which was akin to ratification of the Constitution itself since it fundamentially changed the character of this republic - went like this:





I wonder why so many states reused to ratify initially and then changed their minds. I'm sure gun barrels in faces had nothing to do with it. /S
« Last Edit: November 11, 2025, 09:58:27 am by Bigun »
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline Luis Gonzalez

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Yeah, 81% of our state voted that marriage was between a man and a woman.

Seventy percent of Americans opposed interracial marriage at the time Loving was decided.

We are a Constitutional Republic.
"One woman and one man might have been OK in your grandmother’s day, but who wants to marry your grandmother? Not even your grandfather!" ~ Groucho Marx.

Offline Hoodat

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Seventy percent of Americans opposed interracial marriage at the time Loving was decided.

Not sure why you keep bring up Loving since it refutes your claim by reaffirming the fundamental of marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Maybe you can explain how the Loving decision was deemed 'Constitutional' in 1967, yet deemed 'unconstitutional' in 2015.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.     -Dwight Eisenhower-

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."     -Ayn Rand-

Offline Hoodat

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I’m satisfied with my arguments. I (as is plainly visible) have made them quite well. But unfortunately I can’t help you understand them.

I understand your arguments.  It's just that they don't have a damn thing to do with Obergefell.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.     -Dwight Eisenhower-

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."     -Ayn Rand-

Offline Luis Gonzalez

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I understand your arguments.  It's just that they don't have a damn thing to do with Obergefell.

So in spite of all the evidence — and the Court’s own reasoning — you’d rather oppose SCOTUS by leaning on the ol’ ‘it’s always been that way’ defense? That’s the appeal to tradition and popularity teaming up for one last dance. Unfortunately, neither holds up under the XIV Amendment — and that’s exactly why Obergefell does.

We understand each other.
"One woman and one man might have been OK in your grandmother’s day, but who wants to marry your grandmother? Not even your grandfather!" ~ Groucho Marx.

Offline Luis Gonzalez

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Not sure why you keep bring up Loving since it refutes your claim by reaffirming the fundamental of marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Maybe you can explain how the Loving decision was deemed 'Constitutional' in 1967, yet deemed 'unconstitutional' in 2015.

It refuted the notion that society could, as a voting block, continue to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution, your oversimplification and misinterpretation of the case and its finding notwithstanding.

The decision says what it says and there is no mention of “one man, one woman” in it as a deciding factor in the doc, and in both cases the XIV was the base.

Nah. I’d rather see you defend Dredd Scott from your double-pour of logical fallacies. 


"One woman and one man might have been OK in your grandmother’s day, but who wants to marry your grandmother? Not even your grandfather!" ~ Groucho Marx.

Online Fishrrman

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Lots of meaningless and useless banter in this thread.

Makes me wonder...

What if you had asked the Founders at the Constitutional Convention (each and every one of them):
"What do you think of homosexual marriage? Will this Constitution protect that?"

I wonder what their replies would have been (each and every one of them)...?

Online roamer_1

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So in spite of all the evidence — and the Court’s own reasoning — you’d rather oppose SCOTUS by leaning on the ol’ ‘it’s always been that way’ defense? That’s the appeal to tradition and popularity teaming up for one last dance. Unfortunately, neither holds up under the XIV Amendment — and that’s exactly why Obergefell does.

We understand each other.

It goes way past mere tradition and approaches violating instinct.

It also helps to destroy the lowest common denominator of governance, removing the household. Yet another destruction of the sanctity of marriage, and the sanctity of family.

It is insidious in its perfidy. It is a lie. A vile cancer to cut out.

Offline Hoodat

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So in spite of all the evidence —

What evidence?  I've asked you for evidence multiple times.  And your only response has been to repeat the claim.

(See logical fallacies:  Begging the question)


— you’d rather oppose SCOTUS by leaning on the ol’ ‘it’s always been that way’ defense?

No, not at all.  Nowhere in any of this have I made that argument.  Let me remind you that it was YOU who introduced all that "fundamental right" bullshit, not I.  You're the one who keeps bringing up Loving which affirmed that marriage is between one man and one woman.

No, my defense from the get-go has been that there has been zero evidence presented showing that Ohio marriage law violated Equal Protection.  In fact, when it comes to Equal Protection, it is the Obergefell decision itself that violates it by creating a special class with special rights that trump all other groups.


That’s the appeal to tradition and popularity teaming up for one last dance.

That was your argument, not mine.  Remember, you are the one who introduced Loving.  I don't give a damn about tradition or popularity.  My concern is with the wording of the Constitution itself as it applies to the facts of this case.  The Fourteenth Amendment hasn't changed in 145 years.  Neither has Ohio marriage law.  That's not tradition, that's fact.  So what did change?


Unfortunately, neither holds up under the XIV Amendment —

Yet again, how so?  Explain how a marriage law deemed compliant with Amendment XIV for almost a century and a half suddenly finds itself in violation of it?  Let's hear it.  Stop repeating the conclusion.  Make your case.


— and that’s exactly why Obergefell does.

No, it does not.  Obergefell creates a protected class at the expense of all others.  That isn't "equal".
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.     -Dwight Eisenhower-

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."     -Ayn Rand-

Offline Hoodat

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It refuted the notion that society could, as a voting block, continue to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution

Yet again, Ohio's marriage law didn't violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution.


The decision says what it says and there is no mention of “one man, one woman” in it as a deciding factor in the doc

Loving is mentioned 14 times.  Would you like to revisit that?


Nah. I’d rather see you defend Dredd Scott from your double-pour of logical fallacies.

Speaking of logical fallacies, nowhere have I defended Scott, although I'm sure you would readily declare it a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment based solely on the premise that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment, just as you have done with Obergefell.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.     -Dwight Eisenhower-

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."     -Ayn Rand-

Offline Hoodat

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So in spite of .  .  .  the Court’s own reasoning —

Let's review that reasoning, shall we?  Here's what a few of the Justices had to say about it:



Quote
Until the federal courts intervened, the American people were engaged in a debate about whether their States should recognize same-sex marriage.[1] The question in 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.

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 classical 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 tradition.’ ” Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U. S. 701 –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 marriage until the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held in 2003 that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the State Constitution. See Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, 440 Mass. 309, 798 N. E. 2d 941. Nor is the right to same-sex marriage deeply rooted in the traditions of other nations. No country allowed same-sex couples to marry until the Netherlands did so in 2000.

What [those arguing in favor of a constitutional right to same sex marriage] seek, therefore, is not the protection of a deeply rooted right but the recognition of a very new right, and they seek this innovation not from a legislative body elected by the people, but from unelected judges. Faced with such a request, judges have cause for both caution and humility.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 7–8) (footnote omitted).
For today’s majority, it does not matter that the right to same-sex marriage lacks deep roots or even that it is contrary to long-established tradition. The Justices in the majority claim the authority to confer constitutional protection upon that right simply because they believe that it is fundamental.

-Justice Alito-

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/576/644/#tab-opinion-3427257


Quote
The Court’s decision today is at odds not only with the Constitution, but with the principles upon which our Nation was built. Since well before 1787, liberty has been understood as freedom from government action, not entitlement to government benefits. The Framers created our Constitution to preserve that understanding of liberty. Yet the majority invokes our Constitution in the name of a “liberty” that the Framers would not have recognized, to the detriment of the liberty they sought to protect. Along the way, it rejects the idea—captured in our Declaration of Independence—that human dignity is innate and suggests instead that it comes from the Government. This distortion of our Constitution not only ignores the text, it inverts the relationship between the individual and the state in our Republic. I cannot agree with it.  .  .  .

.  .  .  By straying from the text of the Constitution, substantive due process exalts judges at the expense of the People from whom they derive their authority. Petitioners argue that by enshrining the traditional definition of marriage in their State Constitutions through voter-approved amendments, the States have put the issue “beyond the reach of the normal democratic process.” Brief for Petitioners in No. 14–562, p. 54. But the result petitioners seek is far less democratic. They ask nine judges on this Court to enshrine their definition of marriage in the Federal Constitution and thus put it beyond the reach of the normal democratic process for the entire Nation. That a “bare majority” of this Court, ante, at 25, is able to grant this wish, wiping out with a stroke of the keyboard the results of the political process in over 30 States, based on a provision that guarantees only “due process” is but further evidence of the danger of substantive due process.[1]

Even if the doctrine of substantive due process were somehow defensible—it is not—petitioners still would not have a claim. To invoke the protection of the Due Process Clause at all—whether under a theory of “substantive” or “procedural” due process—a party must first identify a deprivation of “life, liberty, or property.” The majority claims these state laws deprive petitioners of “liberty,” but the concept of “liberty” it conjures up bears no resemblance to any plausible meaning of that word as it is used in the Due Process Clauses.  .  .  .

.  .  .  Our Constitution—like the Declaration of Independence before it—was predicated on a simple truth: One’s liberty, not to mention one’s dignity, was something to be shielded from—not provided by—the State. Today’s decision casts that truth aside. In its haste to reach a desired result, the majority misapplies a clause focused on “due process” to afford substantive rights, disregards the most plausible understanding of the “liberty” protected by that clause, and distorts the principles on which this Nation was founded. Its decision will have inestimable consequences for our Constitution and our society. I respectfully dissent.

-Justice Thomas-

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/576/644/#tab-opinion-3427256


Quote
Petitioners make strong arguments rooted in social policy and considerations of fairness. They contend that same-sex couples should be allowed to affirm their love and commitment through marriage, just like opposite-sex couples. That position has undeniable appeal; over the past six years, voters and legislators in eleven States and the District of Columbia have revised their laws to allow marriage between two people of the same sex.

But this Court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us. Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be. The people who ratified the Constitution authorized courts to exercise “neither force nor will but merely judgment.” The Federalist No. 78, p. 465 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (A. Hamilton) (capitalization altered).

Although the policy arguments for extending marriage to same-sex couples may be compelling, the legal arguments for requiring such an extension are not. The fundamental right to marry does not include a right to make a State change its definition of marriage. And a State’s decision to maintain the meaning of marriage that has persisted in every culture throughout human history can hardly be called irrational. In short, our Constitution does not enact any one theory of marriage. The people of a State are free to expand marriage to include same-sex couples, or to retain the historic definition.

Today, however, the Court takes the extraordinary step of ordering every State to license and recognize same-sex marriage. Many people will rejoice at this decision, and I begrudge none their celebration. But for those who believe in a government of laws, not of men, the majority’s approach is deeply disheartening. Supporters of same-sex marriage have achieved considerable success persuading their fellow citizens—through the democratic process—to adopt their view. That ends today. Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law. Stealing this issue from the people will for many cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept.

The majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedent. The majority expressly disclaims judicial “caution” and omits even a pretense of humility, openly relying on its desire to remake society according to its own “new insight” into the “nature of injustice.” Ante, at 11, 23. As a result, the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are?

It can be tempting for judges to confuse our own preferences with the requirements of the law. But as this Court has been reminded throughout our history, the Constitution “is made for people of fundamentally differing views.” Lochner v. New York, 198 U. S. 45, 76 (1905) (Holmes, J., dissenting). Accordingly, “courts are not concerned with the wisdom or policy of legislation.” Id., at 69 (Harlan, J., dissenting). The majority today neglects that restrained conception of the judicial role. It seizes for itself a question the Constitution leaves to the people, at a time when the people are engaged in a vibrant debate on that question. And it answers that question based not on neutral principles of constitutional law, but on its own “understanding of what freedom is and must become.” Ante, at 19. I have no choice but to dissent.
Understand well what this dissent is about: It is not about whether, in my judgment, the institution of marriage should be changed to include same-sex couples. It is instead about whether, in our democratic republic, that decision should rest with the people acting through their elected representatives, or with five lawyers who happen to hold commissions authorizing them to resolve legal disputes according to law. The Constitution leaves no doubt about the answer.

-Justice Roberts-

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/576/644/#tab-opinion-3427258


These three Justices (along with Justice Scalia) nail it.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.     -Dwight Eisenhower-

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Online Bigun

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"...But this Court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us. Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be. ..."



 :bingo:
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Online Smokin Joe

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Leviticus 18
Quote
7You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.

8You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.

9You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

10You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for that would shame your family.

11You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.

12You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.

13You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.

14You must not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations with her; she is your aunt.

15You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her.

16You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother.

17You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.

18You must not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive.

19You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period.

20You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
Quote
22 “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.” 23You must not lie carnally with any animal, thus defiling yourself with it; a woman must not stand before an animal to mate with it; that is a perversion.

24Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves. 25Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.

Seems there are a lot of rules about marriage much older than the Constitution, even the Magna Carta.

FAFO with that Judge at your peril.

A mere 1400 years old:

Quote
Sayyidna Abu Hurairah ؓ عنہ reports that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: "Four types of people are, when they begin their day, under the wrath of Allah and when they reach their evenings they are under the rage of Allah." I asked: "Who are they, 0 Messenger of Allah?" He said: "Men who imitate women and women who imitate men and he who goes unto animals and he who goes unto men".>snip<
As for a fixed punishment for this evil act, there is a difference of opinion among Muslim jurists, details of which are available in books of Fiqh. Nevertheless, the nature of such punishments reported by them is as severe as it can be, such as, burning into fire, bashing under a wall felled over, throwing down from a height, stoning and beheading with a sword.

Considering the above takes in three major religions, all of which affect the secular laws within their purview, inventing a "Right" for same sex marriage sure goes against that grain. WHile homosexuality has certainly been around that long also, there is no "Right" stated for anyone to marry someone of the same sex.

As for equal protection, people have been (generally) free to marry someone of the opposite sex, provided they are not close relatives, with the exception of anti-miscegnation laws. Those should have been overthrown, simply because in the case of a man marrying a woman, race is only as relevant as the participants feel it is. There are no biblical or Koranic prohibitions insofar as race goes that i am aware of.
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Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

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Offline Luis Gonzalez

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What evidence?  I've asked you for evidence multiple times.  And your only response has been to repeat the claim.

1. Loving v. Virginia (1967)

Constitutional basis: Fourteenth Amendment — Equal Protection & Due Process Clauses

Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for a unanimous Court, stated:

“These statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

and:

“There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.”

Summary:
The Court held that Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law violated both the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. It established that marriage is a fundamental civil right, and states cannot infringe upon it through discriminatory classifications (in that case, race).

2. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

Constitutional basis: Fourteenth Amendment — Equal Protection & Due Process Clauses

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, explicitly linked Obergefell to Loving and relied on the same constitutional provisions:

“The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, couples of the same sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.”

Kennedy further cited Loving as precedent:

“In Loving v. Virginia, the Court invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage, holding that such laws ‘deprive[d] all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.’
The reasons why marriage is a fundamental right apply with equal force to same-sex couples.”

Summary:
Obergefell directly extended Loving’s Fourteenth Amendment reasoning — that the right to marry is a fundamental liberty protected by Due Process and cannot be denied to a class of citizens without violating Equal Protection.

Both Loving and Obergefell explicitly rest on the same constitutional foundation — the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantees of liberty (Due Process) and equality (Equal Protection). One addressed racial discrimination and the other sex/gender based discrimination.

Each decision reaffirmed that marriage, as a civil institution, falls within the scope of those constitutional protections.

Quote
No, not at all.  Nowhere in any of this have I made that argument.  Let me remind you that it was YOU who introduced all that "fundamental right" bullshit, not I.  You're the one who keeps bringing up Loving which affirmed that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Where is that quote from Loving defining “one man, one woman” marriage?

Quote
No, my defense from the get-go has been that there has been zero evidence presented showing that Ohio marriage law violated Equal Protection.  In fact, when it comes to Equal Protection, it is the Obergefell decision itself that violates it by creating a special class with special rights that trump all other groups.

That’s not accurate. Obergefell didn’t create a “special class” or “special rights” — it applied the same Fourteenth Amendment protections that have always existed. The Court held that marriage is a fundamental right under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, and that the state can’t deny that right to one group of citizens simply because of who they love.

Equal Protection doesn’t mean freezing rights where they stood in 1868 — it means the law must treat similarly situated people equally. Ohio’s ban excluded same-sex couples from a civil institution the state granted to everyone else. That’s the violation.

The Court didn’t give new rights to gay couples; it removed an unconstitutional barrier that denied them the same civil right everyone else already had — just as Loving v. Virginia did for interracial couples nearly fifty years earlier.

It’s important to remember the actual legal facts:

   1.   Loving v. Virginia did not define marriage as “one man, one woman.” The Court’s decision focused entirely on racial discrimination, affirming that the freedom to marry is a fundamental right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. It did not impose any restriction based on the gender of the spouses.
   2.   Both Loving and Obergefell v. Hodges are grounded in the Fourteenth Amendment. Loving struck down race-based barriers to marriage under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses, and Obergefell applied the same principles to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples. In each case, the Court protected the individual liberty to marry and ensured equal treatment under the law, rather than creating “special rights” for any group.

In short: the Constitution protects the freedom to marry; it does not restrict that right to a particular race or gender.

We are done here until you provide the Loving text you keep alluding to a one man, one woman. I want to read Warren saying that, not what you think he meant by saying anything other than that.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2025, 11:26:28 pm by Luis Gonzalez »
"One woman and one man might have been OK in your grandmother’s day, but who wants to marry your grandmother? Not even your grandfather!" ~ Groucho Marx.

Online Sighlass

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Let's review that reasoning, shall we?

Thank you for the Justices quotes. The decision was a gift to a new imagined misaligned that came not due to constitutionality but wokeness.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2025, 11:26:46 pm by Sighlass »
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Online Smokin Joe

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Loving, while not explicitly declaring marriage to be between one man and one woman, only loosened the constraints for such unions between members of different races. By longstanding convention, such unions were between one man and one woman, only departing from the imposition of racial constraints. Thus, fundamentally, there was no real change from what had traditionally been considered a "couple", the aim still to, within a societal framework, produce and raise children. Note, too, that this allows for intermarriage not just between black and white, but Native American or Asian to marry other races as well, but still, between a man and a woman.

As I have quoted in an earlier post on this thread, there were definite religious constraints on even those unions, to prevent incest, and none of the three religions cited (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) permitted marriage, or even sexual relations between people of the same sex.

In that sense, Obergefell departed from millennia old convention as to what a married couple should consist of in terms of the sex of the partners.

To believe that the Founders would have meant for a marriage which would have flown in the face of long-held religious convention about relationships eligible for marriage, which would have served no purpose for bearing and rearing children, and which would have contributed little to social stability seems disingenuous.

Most of the protections afforded by marriage to heterosexual couples could have been handled by contractual arrangements other than imposing abomination on a sacrament by legal means.

The glaring exception is health insurance coverage, relevant especially in the instance of homosexual couples due to HIV/AIDS and other medical complications that often accompany the lifestyle. At the time of Obergefell, the expense of treating those conditions, including but not limited to medications, was (and likely still is) extreme.
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Offline Hoodat

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What evidence?  I've asked you for evidence multiple times.  And your only response has been to repeat the claim.

1. Loving v. Virginia (1967)

Constitutional basis: Fourteenth Amendment — Equal Protection & Due Process Clauses

Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for a unanimous Court, stated:

“These statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” .  .  .

So what do you do?  You again ignore the question and repeat the claim.

I already know what Kennedy said in Obergefell.  And I already know what Warren said in Loving (which contradicts Obergefell).  My question to you is this:  Explain to us how an Ohio marriage law that had been on the books long before Loving (and was Constitutional at the time of Loving) suddenly found itself on the wrong side of the Constitution in 2015?  How does the Ohio law violate Equal Protection?

It should be clear to everyone here that it doesn't based solely on your inability to answer this simple question.


[Chief Justice Earl Warren]
and:

“There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.”

Summary:
The Court held that Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law violated both the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. It established that marriage is a fundamental civil right, and states cannot infringe upon it through discriminatory classifications (in that case, race).

Ohio law did not restrict the freedom of anyone to marry.  Unlike Virginia's law pre-Loving, Ohio law was applied to everyone equally.  The pool of candidates was not limited by race or preference under the definition of marriage.  There was never any Equal Protection issue with Ohio law leading up to Obergefell.  It was deemed perfectly Constitutional in 1967 when Loving came out.  Yet in 2015, with the exact same law and exact same Constitution, five black-robed tyrants decided they were to become Super-Legislators for a day.


[Chief Justice Earl Warren]
2. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

Constitutional basis: Fourteenth Amendment — Equal Protection & Due Process Clauses

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, explicitly linked Obergefell to Loving and relied on the same constitutional provisions:

“The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, couples of the same sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.”

Kennedy further cited Loving as precedent:

“In Loving v. Virginia, the Court invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage, holding that such laws ‘deprive[d] all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.’
The reasons why marriage is a fundamental right apply with equal force to same-sex couples.”

Kennedy pulled that one straight out of his butt.  He effectively trashed the very definition of marriage cited in Loving, and then redefined it based solely on fiat.  Loving had clear equal protection and due process standards in place.  Obergefell did not.  The "fundamental marriage" argument that applied in Loving was nowhere to be found by Kennedy.  So he created a new "fundamental" standard out of thin air and used it to replace the old one, directly contradicting Loving.

Note how also Kennedy discarded an "individual right" and replaced it with a "couples" right.


Summary:
Obergefell directly extended Loving’s Fourteenth Amendment reasoning — that the right to marry is a fundamental liberty protected by Due Process and cannot be denied to a class of citizens without violating Equal Protection.

That's just it.  Marriage wasn't being denied to anyone.  Every person had the right to get married under Ohio law by that "fundamental" definition of marriage, regardless of sexual preference.


Both Loving and Obergefell explicitly rest on the same constitutional foundation — the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantees of liberty (Due Process) and equality (Equal Protection). One addressed racial discrimination and the other sex/gender based discrimination.

Loving, yes.  Obergefell, no.  Loving did not create a special class.  Loving took the fundamental marriage definition and applied it to everyone.  But Obergefell creates a special class outside of that fundamental marriage definition and imposes a brand new definition on society elevated above all others.  No other class gets a special protection carved out for them.  Only the class that advocates same-sex marriage.  In other words, Obergefell actually violates Equal Protection.

Oh, and also, Ohio law didn't discriminate based on sex/gender.  The existing law applied to everyone equally regardless of preference.
 

Each decision reaffirmed that marriage, as a civil institution, falls within the scope of those constitutional protections.

Loving reaffirmed.  Obergefell redefined.  Not the same.


Where is that quote from Loving defining “one man, one woman” marriage?

Yet again:

Quote
Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U. S. 535, 316 U. S. 541 (1942).

-Justice Warren-

He's quoting Skinner there.  And what does Skinner say?


Quote
But the instant legislation runs afoul of the equal protection clause, though we give Oklahoma that large deference which the rule of the foregoing cases requires. We are dealing here with legislation which involves one of the basic civil rights of man. Marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race. The power to sterilize, if exercised, may have subtle, far-reaching and devastating effects. In evil or reckless hands, it can cause races or types which are inimical to the dominant group to wither and disappear. There is no redemption for the individual whom the law touches. Any experiment which the State conducts is to his irreparable injury. He is forever deprived of a basic liberty.

-Justice Douglas-

So according to Douglas, same-sex unions do not qualify as they do not contribute to the very existence and survival of the race.  Which again baffles me as to why you continue to cite Loving since it directly contradicts the decision in Obergefell, even after having been shown this multiple times.  Clearly, you aren't considering a single word I have said but have closed your mind to reason and critical thought.


That’s not accurate. Obergefell didn’t create a “special class” or “special rights” —

It most certainly did.  Is this same marriage guarantee extended to people who want to marry siblings?  Parents?  Children?  The answer is a resounding 'no'.  "Fundamental" marriage has been discarded.  A newly created definition has been elevated to replace it at the behest of a single special class.  And ironically, this brand new definition is now being called "fundamental" by the likes of you.


The Court held that marriage is a fundamental right under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses,  .  .  .

Do you realize you have shifted your argument?  You started this conversation out by saying that marriage itself was fundamental.  Now you're saying that the "right" to marriage is fundamental.  So subtle.


.  .  . and that the state can’t deny that right to one group of citizens simply because of who they love.

And that right there exposes the dishonesty of your argument.  If I happen to love some 8-year-old boy and he loves me, then according to you any State law that bans a marriage between us is unconstitutional to you?  When in reality, my special class status is inferior to the special class acquiesced in Obergefell, which is in itself a violation of Equal Protection.



Equal Protection doesn’t mean freezing rights where they stood in 1868 — it means the law must treat similarly situated people equally.

Ohio law already did treat people (i.e. individuals) equally.  So did the new Virginia law post-Loving.


Ohio’s ban excluded same-sex couples from a civil institution the state granted to everyone else. That’s the violation.

Whoa, there you go again.  You deviated away from individual rights and replaced it with "couple" rights.


We are done here until you provide the Loving text you keep alluding to a one man, one woman. I want to read Warren saying that, not what you think he meant by saying anything other than that.

First posted two days ago.  You just didn't bother reading it.
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Now... what did I say above...?

Offline Luis Gonzalez

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First posted two days ago.  You just didn't bother reading it.

Show it to me.
"One woman and one man might have been OK in your grandmother’s day, but who wants to marry your grandmother? Not even your grandfather!" ~ Groucho Marx.