Our View: The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Oklahoma’s case challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is a bittersweet victory for marriage equality.
It may sound strange, but inaction on behalf of the federal government actually proved to be a huge step toward marriage equality in the U.S. on Monday. The Supreme Court announced Monday it would not consider any of five cases challenging state bans on gay marriage.
Essentially, the Supreme Court chose not to review the cases and give its opinion on marriage equality, but it maintained the circuit courts rulings in the cases, meaning couples of all sexual orientations will soon be able to marry in Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Indiana. We could not be happier equality has finally come to Oklahoma and we believe the Supreme Court should take a clear stance in support of marriage equality in the near future.
Oklahoma’s journey toward marriage equality began in November 2004 with Sharon Baldwin and Mary Bishop’s lawsuit against a Tulsa court clerk who refused to grant them a marriage license. In January, Oklahoma federal judge Terence Kern ruled Oklahoma’s 2004 state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, but he stayed his ruling pending ruling from a higher court. The U.S. 10th Circuit of Appeals later upheld Kern’s decision, and the case was put before the Supreme Court.
Monday — almost 10 years after Bishop and Baldwin filed their — the Supreme Court decision not to consider the case lifted the stay on the lower courts’ overturn of Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban, granting the couple the right to get a marriage license.
Although we applaud the fact same-sex couples can now marry in Oklahoma, we do not agree with the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear any of the cases. Yes, thousands of same-sex couples in states across the country can now marry, but by refusing to consider the cases, the Supreme Court dodged its responsibility to take a clear stance on nationwide marriage equality.
Americans’ support for marriage equality has skyrocketed in the last two decades, from 27 percent supporting same-sex marriage in 1996 to a majority, 55 percent, supporting marriage equality in May, according to Gallup polls. The same 2013 poll also found that nearly eight in 10 young adults favor marriage equality. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/169640/sex-marriage-support-reaches-new-high.aspx)
We believe those statistics, coupled with judges across the country ruling against same-sex marriage bans, should prove to the Supreme Court that the U.S. is ready for its highest court to support marriage equality. Nationwide change needs to happen sooner rather than later. Marriage is a basic right for all Americans, and in 40 years, future Americans will look back at the prolonged aversion to accepting nationwide marriage equality as silly and overdramatic.
There have been opponents to every single major social struggle in this country, from suffrage to civil rights, and marriage equality is this generation’s most vital social movement. We believe the Supreme Court should wait no longer; young Americans overwhelmingly support marriage equality, and as the standard bearers for the future our values should be represented by the law of the land.
