Question

Baker v. Nelson (1972)
In 1970, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell applied for a marriage license in their home city of Minneapolis but were turned away because they were a same-sex couple. They appealed their case to the Minnesota Supreme Court, but were told that marriage “is a union of man and woman,” an institution “as old as the book of Genesis.”
So the men appealed their case, Baker v. Nelson, all the way to the Supreme Court, which rejected their argument for the legalization of same-sex marriage in 1972 with a single-sentence order: “Appeal from Sup. Ct. Minn. dismissed for want of a substantial federal question.”
Decades passed, and slowly attitudes about same-sex marriage changed. In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, followed by California, New York, New Mexico and Oregon in 2004. Over the next decade, more states legalized same-sex marriage while others passed constitutional amendments “banning” the practice.
In 2015, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Obergefell v. Hodges, which was brought by several same-sex couples who had been denied marriage licenses by state bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. Unlike 1972, when the Court saw no constitutional protections for same-sex couples, the justices came to the opposite conclusion in Obergefell.
“The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. “The petitioners in these cases seek to find that liberty by marrying someone of the same sex and having their marriages deemed lawful on the same terms and conditions as marriages between persons of the opposite sex.”
In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia called the decision “a threat to American democracy” and insisted that matters like same-sex marriage should be decided by the voters in individual states, and not “legislated” by the Supreme Court.
1. Why did the Supreme Court reject same-sex marriage in 1972?












2. What changed between 1972 and 2003?










3. Why did Justice Antonin Scalia dissent (disagree) with the Court’s ruling to allow same sex marriage?

Answer 1

1. Why did the Supreme Court reject same-sex marriage in 1972?
- In Baker v. Nelson the Court dismissed the appeal “for want of a substantial federal question,” meaning the justices concluded the case did not raise a significant question under the U.S. Constitution. At that time courts and much of society treated marriage as a union of a man and a woman, and the Court saw no constitutional protection requiring states to allow same‑sex marriages. The dismissal was summary (no full opinion), reflecting the Court’s view that the claim lacked sufficient federal constitutional merit.

2. What changed between 1972 and 2003?
- Public attitudes and legal thinking about same‑sex relationships shifted over those decades. Activism, litigation, and changing social views produced new state court and legislative outcomes; in 2003 Massachusetts’s high court became the first to recognize same‑sex marriage, and other states later followed. Legal arguments based on equal protection and liberty under the Constitution also matured, creating a body of state and federal decisions and political change that altered the legal landscape.

3. Why did Justice Antonin Scalia dissent (disagree) with the Court’s ruling to allow same‑sex marriage?
- Scalia argued the Court was overstepping its role and taking decisionmaking away from the people and their elected representatives. He believed the definition of marriage should be decided through state democratic processes (legislation or popular vote), not “legislated” by the Supreme Court, and thought the majority’s reasoning improperly created a new constitutional right.