In a recent interview with the New York Times, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett explained why she feels marriage equality is still safe. She stated this was due to strong ‘reliance interests’ in the ruling, which she defined as “things that would be upset or undone if a decision is undone.” She stated that the reliance issues in Obergefell v Hodges go beyond just claims that those interests are social, saying:
“That kind of sounds like in things in the air. Those are very concrete reliance interest. So those would be classic reliance interests in the terms of the law, in terms of legal doctrine… Those are financial. Those are medical.”
After the overturning of Roe v Wade, comments from Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the same reasoning could be used against Obergefell. Justice Alito has also expressed a dislike of the ruling, although he has said that the decision is “entitled to respect”. In a recent interview with CNN, former Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the Obergefell opinion, said:
“A large part of the reasoning in the opinion, and the background of the opinion, was that I had not known how many children were adopted by [LGBTQ+] parents. At first, I thought there were 75,000 children or so. It’s in the hundreds of thousands.”
