June 23, 2015

Like you, Equality Federation staff and board are on pins and needles with anticipation for the Supreme Court’s ruling on the freedom to marry. At press time, the Court has indicated that a decision could be issued on Thursday, Friday, or Monday.

Regardless of how the Court rules, our movement has much to be proud of at this historic moment. We are especially proud of the role our members, the state-based equality groups, have played in growing public support for the freedom to marry to more than 60%. For the past 15+ years, many organizations have canvassed, joined amicus briefs, lobbied their legislators, and amplified the power of the thousands of brave couples willing to share their stories, to bring us to this day.

There are three possible outcomes when the Justices issue their ruling:

• Victory! The Court could grant us the freedom to marry nationwide by ruling that marriage bans are unconstitutional.
• The Court could rule that non-marriage states must respect marriages legally performed elsewhere, but that those states can keep in place their discriminatory bans.
• The Court could rule that marriage bans do not violate the Constitution and that non-marriage states do not have to respect the legal marriages of same-sex couples.

We, along with the legal groups and other movement leaders, are feeling very hopeful about the outcome, but no matter what, we know that we have made enormous progress and we will continue to harness that progress until, finally, all Americans are protected from discrimination under the law.

On the day the Court rules we will be updating our blog and social media with analysis and resources. 

• Be sure to follow the reactions of all the state-based equality groups on our members’ Twitter list!
• In the event of a victory, find a celebration near you at uniteformarriage.org.
• Sign-up for our e-mail alerts to be the first to know what's going on!