WHEREAS, the Philadelphia Bar Association has long supported efforts to recognize civil marriage and civil union protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) couples engaged in same-sex relationships; and,
WHEREAS, on November 18, 1993, the Board of Governors adopted a resolution calling for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to create domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples; and,
WHEREAS, on June 24, 2004, the Board of Governors adopted a resolution opposing a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would constitutionally define marriage as a union between a man and a woman and restrict the ability of the several states to legislatively recognize civil marriage between same-sex couples; and
WHEREAS, on March 30, 2006, the Board of Governors expanded its above June 24, 2004, resolution to oppose any proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution that would prohibit the Commonwealth from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or substantially equivalent to that of marriage for same-sex couples; and
WHEREAS, on January 27, 2014, the Association adopted a resolution urging the Pennsylvania General Assembly to legislatively recognize marriage equality and declared the Association’s support of marriage equality in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), wherein the Supreme Court determined that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees marriage equality throughout the United States; and
WHEREAS, in the following years, same-sex couples across the nation exercised their constitutional rights and joined together in civil marriage; and
WHEREAS, as of 2022,1 there were over 1.2 million same-sex couple households in the United States, a number that likely continues to grow; and
WHEREAS, after the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in the Commonwealth of Kentucky refused to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples, resulting in her facing contempt charges for failing to issue a marriage license to David Ermold and David Moore, a same-sex couple in Rowan County, Kentucky; and
WHEREAS, litigation ensued between Davis and Ermold and Moore, with ongoing proceedings related to the payment of money damages; and
WHEREAS, on August 11, 2025, attorneys for Davis filed a petition for writ of certiorari 2 in the United States Supreme Court, pursuant to which the attorneys ask, inter alia, “[w]hether Obergefell v. Hodges. . .and the legal fiction of substantive due process, should be overturned”.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Philadelphia Bar Association opposes the Petition for Writ of Certiorari, particularly Question Presented (3) concerning whether Obergefell v. Hodges and the doctrine of substantive due process should be overturned; and
IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association reaffirms its decades-long precedent of standing in resolute support of marriage equality for same-sex couples in the United States and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and
IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of Governors authorizes the Chancellor or the Chancellor’s designee, to take appropriate actions to oppose efforts to overturn Obergefell, and the doctrine of substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
PHILADELPHIA BAR ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Adopted: September 16, 2025
1 Zachary Scherer, Number of Same-Sex Couple Households Exceeded 1 Million in 2021, U.S. Census Bureau (Nov. 22, 2022), https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/11/same-sex-couple-households-exceeded-one-million.html.
2 Petition for Writ of Certiorari https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-125/366933/20250724095150195_250720a%20Petition%20for%20efling.pdf.
