Goodridge v. Department of Public Health

Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health
Court	Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Full case name	Hillary Goodridge, Julie Goodridge, David Wilson, Robert Compton, Michael Horgan, Edward Balmelli, Maureen Brodoff, Ellen Wade, Gary Chalmers, Richard Linnell, Heidi Norton, Gina Smith, Gloria Bailey, and Linda Davies v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Commissioner of Public Health
Argued	March 4, 2003
Decided	November 18, 2003
Citation(s)	440 Mass. 309, 798 N.E.2d 941 (Mass. 2003)
Case history
Prior action(s)	Summary judgment granted to defendants, 14 Mass. L. Rep. 591 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2002)
Subsequent action(s)	none
Holding
The denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated provisions of the state constitution guaranteeing individual liberty and equality, and was not rationally related to a legitimate state interest. Superior Court of Massachusetts at Suffolk vacated and remanded.
Court membership
Judges sitting	Margaret H. Marshall, John M. Greaney, Roderick L. Ireland, Francis X. Spina, Judith A. Cowin, Martha B. Sosman, Robert J. Cordy
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Greaney, Ireland, Cowin
Concurrence	Greaney
Dissent	Spina, joined by Sosman, Cordy
Dissent	Sosman, joined by Spina, Cordy
Dissent	Cordy, joined by Spina, Sosman
Laws applied
Mass. Const. arts. 1, 6, 7, and 10, and Part II, c. 1, § 1, art. 4; Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 207

Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 941 (Mass. 2003), is a landmark Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court case in which the Court held that the Massachusetts Constitution requires the state to legally recognize same-sex marriage. The November 18, 2003, decision was the first by a U.S. state's highest court to find that same-sex couples had the right to marry.^[1] Despite numerous attempts to delay the ruling, and to reverse it, the first marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004, and the ruling has been in full effect since that date.