On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state.
Two individuals, James Obergefell and John Arthur James filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage on death certificates. The two were legally married in Maryland in 2013. Mr. Arthur, who suffered from a terminal illness, died several months after litigation began. Due to Ohio law, under both the Ohio Constitution and the Ohio Revised Code, plaintiffs believed that state officials would refuse to indicate Mr. Arthur was married at the time of his death and that Mr. Obergefell was his spouse.