Brett Turner, Senior Attorney, Family Law, National Legal Research Group
This is a long-term series of posts on one of the hottest topics in modern American family law—same-sex marriage. In United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013), the Supreme Court held that the federal government must defer to state law on the validity of same-sex marriage, and it struck down a federal statute providing that the federal government can never recognize a same-sex marriage. But if state law is now controlling, the immediate next question is, which state's law? This blog began as an attempt to collect case law answering that question.
But this purpose was quickly overtaken by events. Perhaps motivated in part by the difficulty of determining which state's law applies, the post-Windsor case law has held with near-uniformity that the states cannot constitutionally restrict same-sex marriage at all.
This blog therefore evolved into a more general attempt to collect post-Windsor case law on same-sex marriage. As the reader will see, the author has grown somewhat critical of the current trend to resolve the nationwide dispute over same-sex marriage by federal court decision. Same-sex marriage is almost certainly coming, and coming quickly, but it will come with more legitimacy and ultimately more support if it comes through the normal processes of state law, at least until the number of states recognizing same-sex marriage reaches 50%.
Please scroll down past the "Read More" to find articles discussing the various aspects of United States v. Windsor.
