{"id":853,"date":"2015-12-08T14:41:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T19:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/?p=853"},"modified":"2016-07-28T11:54:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T15:54:21","slug":"a-union-unlike-any-other-obergefell-and-the-doctrine-of-marital-superiority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/a-union-unlike-any-other-obergefell-and-the-doctrine-of-marital-superiority\/","title":{"rendered":"A Union Unlike Any Other: Obergefell and the Doctrine of Marital Superiority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obergefell v. Hodges is a historic decision that accomplishes the important task of requiring marriage equality across the nation. To many, the opinion\u2019s romantic language gives particular poignancy to the historic moment when the long-recognized fundamental right to marry was finally extended to same-sex couples. However, what people see as the romance of the opinion masks a profoundly conservative decision, one that abandons meaningful equality analysis, and instead engages in a full-throated embrace of the conservative institution of marriage as an essential and necessary cornerstone of American society. In so doing, the decision advances a new and troubling doctrine of marital superiority that explicitly undercuts the dignity and worth of non-marital relationships. Much to the dismay of those who may have wished to allow states to experiment with other, more progressive relationship-recognition forms, Obergefell\u2019s marital superiority rhetoric may guarantee that marriage will, for the foreseeable future, remain the only recognized relationship in town. Download the paper from the Georgetown Law Journal.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obergefell v. Hodges is a historic decision that accomplishes the important task of requiring marriage equality across the nation. To many, the opinion\u2019s romantic language gives particular poignancy to the historic moment when the long-recognized fundamental right to marry was finally extended to same-sex couples. However, what people see as the romance of the opinion masks a profoundly conservative decision, one that abandons meaningful equality analysis, and instead engages in a full-throated embrace of the conservative institution of marriage as an essential and necessary cornerstone of American society. In so doing, the decision advances a new and troubling doctrine of marital superiority that explicitly undercuts the dignity and worth of non-marital relationships. Much to the dismay of those who may have wished to allow states to experiment with other, more progressive relationship-recognition forms, Obergefell\u2019s marital superiority rhetoric may guarantee that marriage will, for the foreseeable future, remain the only recognized relationship in town. Download the paper from the Georgetown Law Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[172,224,225],"audience":[],"coauthors":[222],"class_list":["post-853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-scholarship","tag-marriage","tag-obergefell","tag-same-sex-couples"],"yoast_head":"\r\nA Union Unlike Any Other: Obergefell and the Doctrine of Marital Superiority - Voices at Temple<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/a-union-unlike-any-other-obergefell-and-the-doctrine-of-marital-superiority\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Union Unlike Any Other: Obergefell and the Doctrine of Marital Superiority - Voices at Temple\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Obergefell v. Hodges is a historic decision that accomplishes the important task of requiring marriage equality across the nation. To many, the opinion\u2019s romantic language gives particular poignancy to the historic moment when the long-recognized fundamental right to marry was finally extended to same-sex couples. However, what people see as the romance of the opinion masks a profoundly conservative decision, one that abandons meaningful equality analysis, and instead engages in a full-throated embrace of the conservative institution of marriage as an essential and necessary cornerstone of American society. In so doing, the decision advances a new and troubling doctrine of marital superiority that explicitly undercuts the dignity and worth of non-marital relationships. Much to the dismay of those who may have wished to allow states to experiment with other, more progressive relationship-recognition forms, Obergefell\u2019s marital superiority rhetoric may guarantee that marriage will, for the foreseeable future, remain the only recognized relationship in town. Download the paper from the Georgetown Law Journal.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/a-union-unlike-any-other-obergefell-and-the-doctrine-of-marital-superiority\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voices at Temple\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-08T19:41:47+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-28T15:54:21+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Marriage-Welfare-Law.png\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"840\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"560\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leonore F. 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