News & Commentary

This is the third in a series of posts focusing on issues we will be tackling at the 2014 ACLU of Ohio biennial conference, Resist. Reclaim. Restore Your Rights!

Adrienne Gavula, Associate Director:
What immediately struck me during our tour of SOCF was the level of control. We rarely walked more than 12 or so steps without a set of bars that needed to be opened.

Inmates walk in small, controlled groups to lunch, to recreation, and to their cells.

The freedom to marry has widely been held to be a fundamental right protected by the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. This right was reinforced with the Loving decision in 1967, which ruled that a ban on interracial marriages was unconstitutional.

Over forty years later, people are still being denied the right to marry.

In Judge Black’s decision, he finds that marriage of same-sex couples is a right protected by the Supreme Court based on past marriage decisions. Once this fundamental right is recognized, it cannot be denied to a particular group simply because that group has been historically denied that right.

In Ohio’s case, voters denied this right with a vote in 2004 to ban marriage and anything that resembles marriage of same-sex couples.

Judge Black reaffirms that “the fundamental right to marry is available even to those who have not traditionally been eligible to exercise that right.”

Marriage Recognition from State to State
The Supreme Court of the United States recently held that when a state denies the marriage of a same-sex couple who wed in another state, it intrudes into the realm of private marital, family, and intimate relations. Such a refusal demeans a couple whose moral and sexual choices are protected by the Constitution.

Parenting Rights
Parents have fundamental legal rights in the care and control of their children. When a parent is left off a child’s birth certificate this burdens those fundamental rights. As Judge Blac