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Ten years ago, the Supreme Court voted to extend the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. Same-sex couples include the ruling of Landmark 5-4, which changed courses in US history.
“This freedom may no longer be denied,” Supreme Court Judge Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “The courts now believe that same-sex couples may exercise their fundamental right to marry.”
Obergefellv. A June 2015 decision at Hodges ensured that same-sex couples were guaranteed the same protection and benefits as their heterosexual peers.
However, the ruling does not have detractors. In fact, ten years after the High Court’s decision, recent polls show that public opinion regarding same-sex marriage is more divided than ever before.
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Obergefellv. The plaintiffs in the Hodges case were seen outside the Supreme Court in 2015. Ten years later, in 2025, there is still widespread public support for the Supreme Court decision. (Ken Cedeno/Corbis via Getty Images)
Obergefell’s 10th anniversary also comes at a tense political moment. The White House and Congress are governed by a new, conservative majority as of January 2025. He’s at least raising Republican lawmakers who have been interested in standing by progressives and at least challenging the Supreme Court’s landmark decision.
It also comes as the majority of conservative Supreme Courts have taken up important cases including LGBTQ+ eDuction, gender-related care, and more.
Ten years after the court’s landmark decision, let’s take a look where things are here.
public opinion
The national legalization of same-sex marriage has made such unions less noticeable, increasing the number of Americans who have personal connections with couples directly affected by Supreme Court rulings.
In fact, data from the Williams Institute shows that the number of married same-sex couples in the United States has more than doubled since 2015. At UCLA Law College.
Gallup Surveys data over the past decade shows that while it is largely supported by all actors and demographic support, mostly driven by support from Democrats and independent voters, public support for same-sex marriage has continued to rise over the decade since the Supreme Court Landmark ruling for same-sex marriage came into being, with support from mostly Democrats and independent voters.
A Gallup poll conducted last month showed that nearly seven in 10 US voters said they support same-sex marriage.
Supported by general support, then-President Joe Biden codified same-sex marriage protection at the federal level in 2022 and demanded that marriage respect be approved for same-sex and interracial marriages held in states where the federal government is legal.
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We will be participating in the annual DC Pride Parade on June 8th, 2024 (Getty via Astrid Riecken/Washington Post)
The law requires that marriages be recognized as justified as long as they do not meet state or territorial orders to marry a same-sex couple, and as long as they are in effect in the state in which they were made.
But that doesn’t mean that these actions were undefeated.
Increase in opposition at the state and federal levels
Same-sex marriage support has been declining among Republicans in recent years, with the number of registered Republican voters supporting same-sex marriage falling from 55% in 2021 to just 41% from 55% in 2025, according to data compiled by Gallup.
It is unclear what prompted the shift exactly. But at least some Republican lawmakers in state legislatures across the country have urged the High Court to revisit Obersifel through a symbolic resolution to change their national rights to marriage.
In fact, according to the ACLU, the state legislature in 2024 introduced over 500 “anti-LBGT” bills. Although most of these bills have been passed, same-sex marriage supporters fear that backlash is growing in response to LGBTQ+ protections, and could ultimately return to the Supreme Court, suggesting that it could be an indicator of the opposition of the future.
Some on the left are asking for an end to inclusion efforts. (Mark Kerrison/In Getty Images)
Court precedents and enforcement actions
A recent Supreme Court decision has provided more speculation about how the majority of conservative courts will control same-sex marriage if they decide to take up a case that challenges Obergefell.
The judge was Roev in 2022. It sent shockwaves throughout the country when it overturned Wade and eliminated its constitutional right to abortion. The decision also sparked new fears that the High Court could revisit the protection of same-sex marriages.
Judge Clarence Thomas explicitly proposed on his part that the court should do so in his agreeable majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson.
“In the future, we need to rethink all of the substantive due process precedents for this court… [including] Obergefell,” he added.
President Donald Trump has largely refused to put publicly heavy on the issue.
However, he took action to reverse the course of Biden-era actions, including signing an inauguration order on his first day, declaring that the United States would only recognize “two genders, male and female,” according to a copy of the text.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders at the White House oval office. Trump signed the order in his office on his first day, declaring that the US would recognize only men and women, “two genders,” and raise concerns from LGBTQ+ supporters. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Next Steps
Experts told Fox News Digital that the Republican-led challenge was not surprised Obergefell, particularly pointing to the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month on the US vs. Skrmetti.
Skrmetti is one of the most closely monitored cases of the Supreme Court term, and advocates of LGBTQ+ organizations such as ACLU and Lamda Legal, who argued the case in December, cited the fear that the decision could serve as a legal pretext for future cases, including LGBTQ+ protection.
Fordham Law professor Ethan J. Rave told Fox News Digital in an interview following last week’s court decision.
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Activists for trans rights protest outside the Supreme Court before the start of oral arguments in the US v. Skrmetti. The court ruled 6-3 on June 18, 2025, in favor of Tennessee’s law in question in a blow to transgender activists. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, Getty Images)
He said judges Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Connie Barrett, who joined John Roberts in a multitude of opinions, “it doesn’t seem to want to decide whether trans people are in the quasi-doubt classification.”
“My guess is that if they really get another case of transgender adults, they might be happy to see the ‘technical differences’ between them.
He also said that Roberts appears to have a considerable length to determine what counts as a sexual classification.
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At the end of the day, the live “will not be surprised if someone tries to unlock marriage equality,” said the protections offered under federal law.
“I think I would have been surprised if there were five votes,” he said of securing a majority vote to overturn Obersifel. “But you know, I could, I could see how to count to five.”
Breanne Deppisch is a national political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering the Trump administration, focusing on the Department of Justice, the FBI and other national news.
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