What does the 14th Amendment (1868) imply about marriage equality? The US Supreme Court finally agreed to analyze the implications of the 14th Amendment and same-sex marriage. Consider the 14th Amendment, Section 1:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The 13th Amendment (1865) prohibited chattel slavery. And the 14th Amendment established de jure equality of all men for the pursuit of life, liberty, and property. However, African-American male suffrage needed the 15th Amendment (1870). Also, failures of the Reconstruction Era (1865--1877) never established de facto equality of all men. Similarly, de jure voting equality of all adults regardless of gender needed the 19th Amendment (1920).
The 14th Amendment implies equal opportunity for all US adults. Most citizens of the Reconstruction Era never grasped all of the implications of equality. But the 14th Amendment eventually helped to establish women's suffrage, the prohibition of Jim Crow laws, and the prohibition of many other unjust laws.
A large minority of Americans enjoy a strong romantic desire to marry while they never enjoyed a strong desire for heterosexual romance. Misunderstandings of homosexual orientation are fading. For example, reorientation therapy is a failed experiment. The US has no right to prohibit some citizens from the possibility of a romantic marriage.
No US law should force any individual to celebrate anybody's marriage, which is not this issue. This issue is equal opportunity. 2015 is the year for US marriage equality.
Peace to all.
