[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5640]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            MARRIAGE EQUALITY CASES BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court heard 
oral arguments on the marriage equality cases. The legal principle at 
stake is whether the 14th Amendment to the Constitution protects 
marriages between individuals of the same sex. But at the heart, these 
cases represent something more fundamental. They are about the right of 
every American to marry the person they love and to have their 
relationships treated with the respect and dignity to which every 
American is entitled.
  I am proud that my home State of Vermont has embraced love, equality, 
and freedom in its active and leading role on marriage equality. In 
2000, Vermont was the first in the Nation to provide for civil unions. 
As the years went by, Vermont came to see that civil unions were 
insufficient to provide the protections all American couples are 
entitled to, and in 2009, the Vermont Legislature on a bipartisan vote 
was the first State legislature to enact marriage equality into law. 
Vermont, which has led by example, is now one of 37 States and the 
District of Columbia that recognizes marriage equality.
  While the arguments in the cases today analyzed legal principles and 
precedent, we should remember that they are ultimately about love and 
recognizing the extraordinary commitment between two people. Jim 
Obergefell had been with his partner, John Arthur, for over 20 years. 
They wanted to marry, but the marriage laws in their home State of Ohio 
would not allow it. Bedridden and incapacitated with ALS, John could 
neither drive nor fly commercially to get married in another State. It 
took the generosity of friends and family, along with the kindness of 
coworkers and others, to cover the cost of a $12,700 chartered, 
medically equipped private plane.
  After more than 20 years together, Jim and John finally married 
during a seven and one-half minute ceremony in an airplane at a 
Baltimore airport. Upon their return to Ohio, the State refused to 
recognize their marriage. And John passed away just a few months later. 
Jim, now a widower, should not have to live in a State like Vermont to 
be able to have his 20-year relationship validated and recognized by 
the State. He should not have had to fly to another State to say his 
vows and pledge his commitment to his partner. Jim's current fight--and 
our current fight--is to show that relationships like his should be 
treated with the same respect and dignity that has been accorded to all 
other Americans. It is to persuade the Supreme Court to live up to the 
motto engraved in Vermont marble above its own building, which declares 
``Equal Justice Under Law.''
  Nearly five decades ago when the Supreme Court decided Loving v. 
Virginia, the Court recognized that:

       Marriage is one of the `basic civil rights of man,' 
     fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this 
     fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as [] racial 
     classifications . . . is surely to deprive all the State's 
     citizens of liberty without due process of law. The 
     Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to 
     marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. 
     Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a 
     person of another race resides with the individual, and 
     cannot be infringed by the State.

  In the marriage equality cases heard today, the Court has a simple 
job to do. It need only apply these same constitutional principles to 
hold that the same principle applies equally regardless of sexual 
orientation or gender identity.
  When the Supreme Court issues its decision this summer, I am hopeful 
that it will be another landmark moment demonstrating that ours is a 
more perfect union when it is a more inclusive union. And that the name 
Obergefell will come to signify love, equality, and freedom the same 
way it does when Loving and Windsor are invoked.

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