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In episode 12 of Supreme Court Briefs, a gay couple go to great lengths to get married, and ultimately help change how the Supreme Court interprets the 14th amendment as it pertains to same-sex marriage.
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Jim Obergefell (Ohberguhfell) reads a news story online about the Supreme Court decision in a case known as United States v. Windsor. In that case, the Court decided that part of the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. This meant that same-sex married couples could have federal benefits as long as they were married in states where same-sex marriages were legal.
Jim turned to his boyfriend of more than 20 years, John Arthur, who was laying in bed. Arthur could no longer walk due to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which was quickly destroying his body. Obergefell kissed Arthur on the forehead and said, “let’s get married.” “Ok,” Arthur replied.
They chose Maryland as the state to get married in, as same-sex marriage was illegal in their home state of Ohio. Turning to friends and family on Facebook, the couple raised $13,000 to have an ambulance take them to the airport, where they then boarded a medically equipped plane to the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, just outside Baltimore. On that day, July 11, 2013, they were married inside the plane on the tarmac.
Unfortunately, once they returned to Ohio, they learned that Jim would not be listed on John’s death certificate as his surviving spouse. The reason? Ohio didn’t recognize their marriage for any purpose at all.
So Jim and John sued John Kasich. Ok, so really they sued the state of Ohio, but Kasich was the governor so his name went down as the defendant. And it was really just Jim at this point as John was too weak to act. Jim argued that Ohio discriminated against same-sex couples who had married legally outside of the state. On July 22, the District Judge, a dude named Timothy Black, recognized the marriage, preventing Ohio from leaving John’s name off the death certificate after he died. Just three months later, John Arthur did pass away.
While Jim’s name indeed did appear as John’s surviving spouse on the death certificate, Ohio had appealed this to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. As it turns out, several others were suing their states for the same reason. The Sixth Circuit combined six different decisions from four different states. Jim Obergefell’s case was just one of the six. On November 6, 2014, by a vote of 2-1, the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of the states with the laws banning same-sex marriage. It cited the Supreme Court case Baker v. Nelson, a decision which said states can limit marriage to persons of the opposite sex, as justification for their ruling. Writing for the majority, Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote: "Not one of the plaintiffs' theories...makes the case for constitutionalizing the definition of marriage and for removing the issue from the place it has been since the founding: in the hands of state voters."
Jim and all the others challenging the state same-sex marriage bans appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court agreed to hear four of the same-sex marriage cases that directly challenged state laws banning same-sex marriage. One of these was Obergefell v. Hodges. Wait a sec. Who is Hodges? Hodges was the new dude appointed by Kasich to be Ohio’s health director back in August 2014, so yay, now his name gets to randomly go down in history!
