Bourke v. Beshear
The lead cases on same-sex marriage in Kentucky are Bourke v. Beshear, and its companion case Love v. Beshear. In Bourke, a U.S. district court found that the Equal Protection Clause requires Kentucky to recognize valid same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. In Love, the same court found that this same clause renders Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Both decisions were stayed and consolidated upon appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in both cases on August 6, 2014. On November 6, the Sixth Circuit upheld Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage.
| Bourke v. Beshear | |
|---|---|
Supreme Court of the United States | |
| Argued April 28, 2015 | |
| Full case name | Gregory Bourke, et al., Petitioners v. Steve Beshear, Governor of Kentucky |
| Related cases | Obergefell v. Hodges, DeBoer v. Snyder, Tanco v. Haslam. |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Bourke v. Beshear, 996 F. Supp. 2d 542 (W.D. Ky. 2014); Love v. Beshear, 989 F. Supp. 2d 536 (W.D. Ky. 2014); reversed sub. nom., DeBoer v. Snyder, 772 F.3d 388 (6th Cir. 2014); cert. granted, 135 S. Ct. 1041 (2015). |
| Court membership | |
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| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XIV | |
On January 16, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court consolidated these cases with three others and agreed to review the case under the name Obergefell v. Hodges. Oral arguments were heard on April 28, 2015, and the Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in June 2015.