CNN Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on Monday used the case of a Kentucky clerk who refused to give gay couples marriage licenses to declare that religious liberty has been under siege since the Supreme Court in found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. More Videos In some respects, the objections of conservatives Thomas and Alito simply echoed their dissents five years ago in Obergefell v. But timing is everything, and nothing is quite the same at the Supreme Court since the September 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In the United States, the availability of legally-recognized same-sex marriage expanded from one state in to all fifty states in through various state and federal court rulings, state legislation, and direct popular votes. The fifty states each have separate marriage laws , which must adhere to rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States that recognize marriage as a fundamental right that is guaranteed by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , as first established in the landmark civil rights case of Loving v. Civil rights campaigning in support of marriage without distinction as to sex or sexual orientation began in the s. Nelson saw the Supreme Court of the United States decline to become involved. Lewin that it was unconstitutional under the Constitution of Hawaii for the state to abridge marriage on the basis of sex. That ruling led to federal and state actions to explicitly abridge marriage on the basis of sex in order to prevent the marriages of same-sex couples from being recognized by law, the most prominent of which was the federal Defense of Marriage Act DOMA. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Constitution of Massachusetts for the state to abridge marriage on the basis of sex.

Alito Jr. Hodges , saying it stigmatized people of faith who objected to same-sex marriage. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. The lawyer, Lori H.

Obergefell v. Hodges , U. The 5—4 ruling requires all fifty states , the District of Columbia , and the Insular Areas to perform and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of opposite-sex couples, with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities. Between January and February , plaintiffs in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee filed federal district court cases that culminated in Obergefell v. After all district courts ruled for the plaintiffs, the rulings were appealed to the Sixth Circuit.