Question

PLEASE HELP!! 30 points!

2. James Obergefell and John Arthur, two residents of Ohio, married in Maryland in 2013. When they returned to Ohio, however, the state refused to recognize marriage between same-sex couples because of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The two men filed a lawsuit against Ohio's ban on same-sex marriage. The Obergefell case was combined with several similar cases before it was appealed to the Supreme Court as Obergefell v. Hodges. Ohio's director of health, Richard Hodges, was the lead defendant.
In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court overturned all state bans against same-sex marriage. In his majority opinion, Anthony M. Kennedy argued that marriage is a fundamental right for all people. To ban same-sex marriage, he explained, was to deny a group of Americans equal protection under the law. In his dissenting opinion, John G. Roberts argued that the legality of same-sex marriage was not a constitutional issue and should therefore be left to individual states to decide.
Write a response to each of the following:
A description of which part of the U.S. Constitution was central to both this case, Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), and the earlier case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
An explanation of at least one major difference between the cases, as it relates to the Constitution
An explanation, based on your understanding of the Constitution or of history, of why the Brown decision was unanimous and why the Obergefell decision was almost evenly split, despite the similarities between the two cases

Answer 1

A. Both the Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) cases were central to the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law to all citizens. In both cases, the plaintiffs argued that the state laws in question violated their constitutional rights to equal protection.

B. One major difference between the cases is the scope of the laws being challenged. The Brown case challenged segregation in public schools, while the Obergefell case challenged state bans on same-sex marriage. Additionally, the Brown case had a clearer historical precedent in the form of the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision, which established the "separate but equal" doctrine. There was no such precedent for the issue of same-sex marriage.

C. The Brown decision was unanimous because the issue of segregation in public schools had a long history of being considered morally and ethically wrong, as well as being clearly discriminatory. The Obergefell decision was almost evenly split because the issue of same-sex marriage was a much more recent and controversial development in American society. There was a great deal of disagreement and lack of consensus on the issue, which is reflected in the split decision. Additionally, the interpretation of the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection has been a contentious issue throughout American history, with some justices taking a more narrow view of the amendment and others taking a broader view. This difference in interpretation likely played a role in the split decision in the Obergefell case.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

The Obergefell v. Hodges case illustrates the principle of judicial review because the Supreme Court overturned a court of appeals ruling on constitutional grounds. In this case, the same-sex couples argued that the state laws banning same-sex marriage or refusing to recognize same-sex marriages from other states violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court reviewed the case and ruled in favor of the couples, finding that the state laws denied the couples their Fourteenth Amendment rights. The Supreme Court's decision was based on a interpretation of the Constitution and not on public opinion or the actions of other states.