URL for presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TPEydJczRu8Jf-Vz3iO3_rSKfSfygsyXGVlqgBgf1kc/edit#slide=id.p

Challenging a State Constitution

In 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges (Vote: 5-4)
14 same-sex couples filed law suits in Federal District Courts in their home States, stating that state officials violated the Fourteenth Amendment by denying them the right to get married.

James Obergefell and John Arthur James filed a lawsuit because the state refused to recognize their marriage on a death certificates. They were legally married in Maryland in 2013. Mr. Arthur suffered a terminal illness and died. Due to Ohio law and under the Ohio Constitution the plaintiffs believed that state officials would refuse to indicate Mr. Arthur was married before his death and that Mr. Obergefell was his spouse.
The plaintiffs were seeking a explicit statement from the court that state of Ohio denying recognition of marriages performed legally in other states on death certificates is unconstitutional.

Judge Black stated that Ohio’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states goes against the Substantive Due Process as well as equal protection rights. It was also declared the not recognizing same sex marriages that were legally performed outside Ohio to be unconstitutional.

According to the Fourteenth Amendment it requires a state to properly license a marriage between
 two people of the same sex and to also notice the marriage of same sex people as lawfully licensed. Same-sex couples have the right to marry and that states have no say to determine that marriage itself is only meant for heterosexual couples. Also under the Constitution, same sex couples should receive same legal treatment as opposite sex couples and if they are treated differently it is like lowering their quality of being an individual person.

Subsidiarity and the People

Subsidiarity holds responsibility in caring out certain functions, these functions are carried out by lowest level of the government, but they have to be performed efficiently and most importantly have to be successful in doing so. If the lower levels of government fail to carry out whatever action then higher levels of government intervene. The concept of subsidiarity is related to “devolution” in the sense that the federal government passes over the power of delegation to state and local government. The main purpose of both subsidiarity and devolution is to increase participation of the people. This opportunity in giving lower level governments the chance to run their own city, community or state gives all people the right to participate in the economic, political and cultural life of society, as well as the chance to make important decisions that affect their community. Also with this individuals accomplishments that they made on their own can not be taken away from them by a higher authority.