Obergefell v. Hodges: Marriage Equality at the Supreme Court

In November 2025, the Supreme Court rejected a case that aimed to overturn the freedom to marry. Learn more.

Marriage provides profound protection for couples and their families. It allows them to plan a life together, including, if they choose, raising children. 2025 marked ten years of nationwide marriage equality. The win in Obergefell was neither the beginning nor the end of the story. GLAD Law will continue to fight to protect marriage equality for all families.  

For more information visit Marriage Equality: Why it Matters, How We Won, and the Road Ahead. 

If you are looking for information to provide additional security for your family, visit our guides:  

June 26, 2015: Victory!

When Was Gay Marriage Legalized in the US?

On June 26, 2015, in a blockbuster legal and cultural moment for the country, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples in the United States, no matter where they live, have the same legal right to marry as different-sex couples. This transformative decision marked a major milestone in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality. Learn more about our response to this historic moment.

GLAD Law’s Mary L. Bonauto argued before the US Supreme Court April 28, 2015 on behalf of same-sex couples who challenged their states’ marriage bans. She stood on behalf of petitioners April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse in the Michigan case DeBoer v. Snyder and Timothy Love, Lawrence Ysunza, Maurice Blanchard, and Dominique James in the Kentucky case Love v. Beshear (joined with Bourke v. Beshear) and same-sex couples across the country who were excluded from marriage.

Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, partner at Ropes & Gray LLP, represented petitioners seeking recognition of their marriages. Learn more here.

The Supreme Court ruling came in consideration of several combined marriage cases. Kentucky petitioners Timothy Love and Lawrence Ysunza and Maurice Blanchard and Dominique James were represented by the ACLU and the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Clay Daniel Walton & Adams, and Fauver Law Office. Learn more here.

GLAD Law was co-counsel in DeBoer v. Snyder, along with Michigan attorneys Carole Stanyar, Dana Nessel of Nessel & Kessel Law, Kenneth Mogill of Mogill, Posner & Cohen and Wayne State University Law Professor Robert Sedler. Learn more about April and Jane and their challenge to Michigan’s marriage ban here and here.

Obergefell v. Hodges and Henry v. Hodges were brought by Lambda Legal and private counsel in Ohio; and Tanco v. Haslam, were brought by NCLR and private counsel in Tennessee.

On November 14, attorneys for Michigan couple April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse filed a petition asking the US Supreme Court to hear their case, seeking to overturn the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision upholding bans on marriage for same-sex couples in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse are both nurses and are the mothers of four children they fostered and adopted and are fostering a fifth. They are devoted to each other, to their kids, and they should be able to marry.

U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman ruled in March 2014 that Michigan’s laws prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying are unconstitutional, following a two-week trial in which expert testimony was heard from the nation’s leading psychologists, sociologists, child welfare professionals, and historians.

In a departure from nearly 50 pro-marriage decisions across the U.S. since June 2013, a three-member panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ issued its opinion on November 6, 2014 reversing Judge Friedman’s ruling, along with similar rulings from Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Marriage equality touches and benefits entire communities across the country. One way we can protect equality is through conversations about why marriage matters to us and to others.   

 Whether you are part of a married couple, have LGBTQ+ parents, are a sibling, parent, grandparent, family member, friend, co-worker, or neighbor, we’d love to know about your experience. Share your story today.