According to the case syllabus, the following is now upheld:
“The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty…The State laws challenged by the petitioners in these cases are held invalid to the extent they exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples. Pp. 22–23”
The vote was narrow, but it will now lift same-sex marriage bans in the 14 states that still had them.
This ruling affects the following states:
- Arkansas
- Alabama
- Texas
- Georgia
- South Dakota
- North Dakota
- Nebraska
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- Michigan
- Louisiana
- Ohio
- Tennessee
- Most of Missouri
With this new decision, same-sex couples are now able to be married no matter where they live. President Barack Obama has called it “justice that arrives like a thunderbolt” and within hours of the decision becoming public, county clerks were issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in numerous states throughout the country.