Supreme Court Strikes Down Tennessee Marriage Ban

Affiliate: ACLU of Tennessee
June 26, 2015 12:45 pm

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NASHVILLE, TN – The United States Supreme Court ruled today in Obergefell v. Hodges to uphold the freedom to marry in all fifty states. The Court’s ruling ensures that states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and strikes down state marriage bans, including Tennessee’s.

Obergefell v. Hodges was a consolidated case that challenged laws in Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio that banned the freedom to marry for same-sex couples and prohibited recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states. ACLU was counsel on the Ohio and Kentucky petitions, and filed an amicus brief in the Tennessee case, Tanco v. Haslam.

The following can be attributed to Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee:

“Today we celebrate history in the making with this momentous win for freedom, equality, inclusion and, above all, love. The Supreme Court’s decision ensures that loving, committed same-sex couples in Tennessee and nationwide who want to build and share a life together will be treated with the same respect and dignity as everyone else. Marriage is a basic freedom that should not be denied to anyone—and today, freedom means freedom for everyone.”

Additional Information on Marriage Equality in Tennessee

The ACLU has been working for the rights of LGBT people since 1936, when it brought its first gay rights case. The organization also filed the first freedom-to-marry lawsuit for same-sex couples in 1970, represented Edie Windsor in her successful challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act in June 2013, and has filed sixteen federal court marriage lawsuits on behalf of same-sex couples since the Windsor decision.

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