Equality, Democracy and Judicial Review in the light of the Supreme Court’s Decision on Same-Sex Marriage

Obergefell v. Hodges is a landmark Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the denial of right to marry to Same-sex couples violated the prohibition of discrimination. The importance of the decision lies in the court’s redefinition of the principle of equality before the law. In this case, Supreme Court concluded that equality does include homosexuals. Although equality before the law seems to be a simple and straightforward principle, black people, women, and homosexuals, as revealed in this study, could gain the right to equal protection of law only after political and legal struggles. In this study, first of all the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the concept of equality before the law shall be analyzed in the context of racial segregation and anti-miscegenation laws. Thereafter, the transformation of the Supreme Court’s approach to homosexuality shall be addressed. In the last part of the study, the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which is based on this historical and political background, shall be evaluated. In the majority and dissenting opinions of the decision, the reflection of the tension between pluralist and majoritarian approaches to democracy could be observed. The probably most important feature of this decision is that it stands as a historic example of how judicial review should function in a pluralistic democratic society.