Section 2 of three · Nine Votes
The Supreme Court arc from Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986 to United States v. Skrmetti in 2025 — case name, page citation, vote count, and what the holding actually said.
The Supreme Court held on 26 June 2015 by five votes to four that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license and recognise same-sex marriages — the majority written by Justice Kennedy, four dissents filed separately by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito. The piece states the holding, the constitutional grounds, and what the four dissents each argued.
By Court
Every holding here arrived as a decision rather than a statute — 7 pieces
Nine Votes
Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), upheld Georgia's sodomy statute five to four; Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), overruled it six to three, with Justice Kennedy again writing the majority.
Nine Votes
The Court held five to four in Windsor that DOMA's section 3 — denying federal recognition to lawful same-sex marriages — violated the Fifth Amendment's due process and equal protection guarantees; Edith Windsor's estate-tax claim of $363,053 was the vehicle.
Nine Votes
Justice Gorsuch's majority held that an employer who fires an employee for being gay or transgender necessarily relies on that employee's sex — a protected characteristic under Title VII's 1964 text — and that the outcome follows from the statute's plain terms.
Nine Votes
The Court struck Colorado's Amendment 2 — which barred any governmental protection of gay and lesbian citizens as a class — six to three in 1996, applying rational basis review and finding no legitimate state interest the amendment could plausibly serve.
Nine Votes
The Court ruled seven to two for the baker not on the merits of the religious-liberty claim but because the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had displayed hostility to religion in its proceedings — leaving the broader question of when public-accommodation law must yield to religious objection expressly undecided.
Nine Votes
Six to three, the Court held that Colorado could not compel a website designer to create wedding websites celebrating same-sex marriages, on free-speech grounds — a holding framed around compelled speech rather than religious belief, and decided on a record that stipulated the designer had not yet refused any customer.
Nine Votes
The Court's 2025 decision in Skrmetti addressed Tennessee's law restricting gender-affirming care for minors — the piece records the holding, the vote, the equal-protection analysis applied, and the scope of the ruling as it bears on state legislative authority.
