News & Commentary

The American Civil Liberties Union, Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and Kentucky-based firms Clay Daniel Walton & Adams and the Fauver Law Office today filed their brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in two Kentucky cases that challenge the state’s laws barring same-sex couples from marrying and barring the recognition of same-sex couples’ marriages from out of state.The groups represent couples in Bourke v. Beshear and Love v. Beshear who seek the freedom to marry in Kentucky and recognition of marriages legally performed outside of Kentucky. These cases challenge Kentucky’s marriage bans on the grounds that they violate the due process and equal protection provisions of the U.S. Constitution.“Lives are wrecked when states like Kentucky exclude lesbians and gay men from the status and protections that come with marriage or nullify one partner’s status as a parent or spouse,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and HIV Project. “Over 50 courts have ruled in favor of marriage equality since DOMA was struck down in 2013.  We look to the Supreme Court to side with fairness, equality and love once more.”The briefs filed today argue that the Commonwealth’s marriage bans violate the due process and equality protections of the Fourteenth Amendment.“Petitioners make no extreme demands. Instead, they ask merely to be treated like everyone else – that is, free to enter into society’s most revered form of mutual association and support, and worthy of the stature and crucial protections that marriage affords,” states the attorneys’ brief.“We are optimistic that the Court will finally recognize equal marriage rights for our clients and other loving, committed couples all over the country,” said Dan Canon of Clay Daniel Walton & Adams.On January 16, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court granted review of a federal appeals court ruling that upheld bans on the freedom to marry and recognition of marriages of same-sex couples legally performed in other jurisdictions in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. Its review sets the stage for final resolution of the debate about marriage equality for same-sex couples nationwide.

The Supreme Court of the United States today denied review in all of the marriage equality cases pending before it. As a result of the Court’s action, same-sex couples in Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma and Utah will now be able to marry the partners they love. Today’s orders also mean that same-sex marriage will soon become lawful in at least 30 states."This is a watershed moment for the entire country. We are one big step closer to the day when all same-sex couples will have the freedom to marry regardless of where they live. The time has come and the country is ready," said James Esseks, Director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. "This is life-saving news for same-sex couples all across the country. Marriage helps families deal with times of crisis, and the Supreme Court’s action today means more loving and committed couples will have access to the protections that marriage provides."The ACLU was co-counsel in five of the seven petitions that were denied today, in cases from Indiana, Virginia, and Wisconsin.The ACLU has been working for the rights of LGBT people since 1936, when it brought its first gay rights case. The organization 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 thirteen federal marriage lawsuits on behalf of same-sex couples since then.More information on the ACLU’s work to secure marriage equality across the country is available at: https://www.aclu.org/out-freedom