Religious and conservative leaders opposed to same-sex marriage say their fight over the issue won’t end with Friday’s Supreme Court ruling. But it is unclear how future battles might play out; religious conservatives say they fear major challenges and disruptions, and gay rights advocates said those worries are overblown.
A Supreme Court decision makes gay marriage legal in all 50 states. What constitutional principles did the court’s majority apply, and what are the implications? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.
“No church will be required to change any of its doctrine related to marriage. No priest or rabbi or other religious official will be required to officiate a gay marriage, and people of faith will be able to advocate in the public square any particular view of marriage,” said Dale Carpenter, a University of Minnesota law professor who supports gay marriage.
“All those things are a matter of constitutional law and they were reiterated today in Justice Kennedy’s opinion,” he said.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority ruling, said that “religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned.”
On Friday, a group of evangelical Protestant pastors released a declaration saying they wouldn’t “capitulate on marriage.”
“We will not allow the government to coerce or infringe upon the rights of institutions to live by the sacred belief that only men and women can enter into marriage,” says the statement, signed by dozens of faith leaders, including Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, as well as John Bradosky, Presiding Bishop of the North American Lutheran Church.
Some religious groups are pressing for legislation that would prevent the federal government from penalizing federal employees, contractors or religiously affiliated organizations that oppose gay marriage. And gay-rights advocates will press for workplace protections against discrimination based on sexual preference.
At a Supreme Court that has been broadly supportive both of religious expression and gay and lesbian equality, the ultimate resolution of such conflicts remained unclear.
Friday’s ruling, confined as it was to marriage, doesn’t resolve broader conflicts between religious liberty and discrimination laws. Currently more than 20 states and the District of Columbia restrict discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment and housing. Almost nearly as many states have laws that also cover rights for transgender and transsexual people.
But in the rest of the country, it is still legal to fire someone or deny housing to someone on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
State legislatures, rather than the courts, are the most likely battleground for the gay-rights movement, legal experts said.
Battles over “religious-freedom laws,” such as the one that erupted in Indiana in March, could become more common, as conservatives push states to enact statutes shielding religious people, organizations and businesses from sanctions for refusing to participate in gay marriages or provide services for same-sex ceremonies, according to Mr. Carpenter.
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