From the Vault: Gay Rights at the Supreme Court in 1996

With the Supreme Court ruling expanding marriage recognition to same-sex couples in all 50 states, we look back in the Washington Week Vault to another opinion written by Justice Kennedy nearly 20 years ago that began a string of gay rights cases at the Supreme Court. The opinion in the 1996 case Romer v. Evans struck down an anti-gay rights amendment to the Colorado constitution. Kennedy wrote that the law violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. At the same time, Congress was debating and ultimately approved the Defense of Marriage Act that was signed into law by President Clinton in September 1996. The law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman for federal purposes was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court just two years ago in United States v. Windsor, another opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.