Elon Law Professor Michael Rich details questions of law and policy raised by the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision.
Elon Law Professor Michael Rich
statement on U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges decision
“The Supreme Court’s decision today in Obergefell v. Hodges is incredibly clear on the two issues before the Court: states must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the same terms that they issue licenses to opposite-sex couples, and states must recognize same-sex marriages from other states. What this decision means beyond that is murky, to say the least. Among the unanswered legal questions: Is sexual orientation now entitled to heightened constitutional protection (like gender or race)? What will happen to laws, like the one recently passed by the North Carolina legislature, that allows magistrates to refuse to marry a same-sex couple based on a ‘sincerely held religious objection’? What will be the result in pending and future challenges to laws that forbid bigamy or polygamy? And the broader, societal implications are also unclear: Will, as the dissenting justices suggest, the Supreme Court’s decision to step in on this hotly-debated political question actually put an end to the rising tide in favor of equal rights? Or is the majority just siding with an inevitable push of history?”
Michael Rich began his legal career at the New York City law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, where his practice focused on the litigation of claims under the First Amendment seeking access to public property and public accommodations. Rich’s current research focuses on crime prevention technology, with recent publications in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and the Connecticut Law Review. His article, “Machine Learning, Automated Suspicion Algorithms, and the Fourth Amendment,” is forthcoming in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. In addition, Rich’s scholarly interests include the philosophical boundaries of criminal law, civil and criminal white-collar litigation, police investigatory methods, and government fraud. Rich received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A., magna cum laude, in Physics and English from the University of Delaware.
Elon Law Now is a faculty commentary series on legal news and current affairs.