A brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the Ohio petitioners seeking recognition in Ohio of their valid out-of-state same-sex marriages. The petitioners contend that the State of Ohio must list them as parents on their children’s birth certificates and recognize the spouse on death certificates if one partner dies. Petitioners argue that Ohio‘s recognition bans set forth in the Ohio Constitution violate the Fourteenth Amendment for all the reasons the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DOMA as unconstitutional in Windsor. Additionally, the marriage recognition bans should be subject to heightened scrutiny under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses. Even without heightened scrutiny, Ohio’s marriage recognition bans do not pass constitutional muster under any standard of review, the petitioners argue.
Petitioner’s Brief in Obergefell v. Hodges, U.S. Supreme Court Case No. 14-566
See our prior post U.S. Supreme Court to Review Ohio Ban on Same-Sex Marriage