Estate and Succession Planning
Dean Mead’s Estate and Succession Planning Department is one of the largest and most respected groups of estate planning attorneys in Florida. We are frequently…
Earlier today, the United States Supreme Court decided to hear four cases from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky) concerning state prohibitions on same-sex marriage. In each of these cases, a federal district court found all or part of a state’s ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional. However, the Sixth Circuit overturned those holdings, becoming the first appeals court to uphold such bans on same sex marriage and created a split among the appeals courts.
In today’s action, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will rule on (1) whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires a state to issue marriage licenses to same sex people; and (2) whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires states to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex that was lawfully performed out of that state. It is anticipated that the U.S. Supreme Court will render a decision by June. Please click here for further discussion on this action by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The eventual ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court from these cases will bring closure to the cases concerning Florida’s ban on same sex marriage as the federal and state court rulings overturning Florida’s ban on same sex marriage are also based on the finding that such bans violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
