The Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Windsor led, many states to legalize same-sex marriage. This set the stage for Obergefell v. Hodges. On June 26, 2013, The Supreme Court struck down The Defense of Marriage Act. They ruled that legally married same-sex couples are entitled to receive equal treatment under the federal law. The ruling required that the federal benefits for legally married opposite-couples, for example Social Security, certain tax breaks and insurance benefits. These then would be extended to legally married same-sex couples. In the Defense of Marriage Act it stated a federal definition of marriage as one man and one women also to defend marriage from being redefined or expanded. In the court’s ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy and four other justices thought the DOMA went against the fifth amendment in the constitution. …show more content…
In 2003 Massachusetts was the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Prior to the U.S. Supreme court ‘s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, the state of same-sex marriage in America was always in flux. From early beginnings, both proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage have asserted controversial arguments. Before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Oct. 6, 2014, declining to hear the case of same-sex marriage. Thirty-one states have either constitutionally or statutory provisions that explicitly defined marriage as one man and one women. Only nineteen states and the District of Columbia allowed same-sex marriage. Many attorneys dropped the case on banning same-sex marriage. Utah was the first to enact a Defense of Marriage Act