Baker v. Nelson | |
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Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Full case name | Richard John Baker et al., Appellants, v. Gerald Nelson, Clerk of District Court, Fourth Judicial District, in Hennepin County, Respondent |
Decided | October 15, 1971 |
Citation | 291 Minn. 310, 191 N.W.2d 185 (1971) |
Case history | |
Prior action | Plaintiff's claim dismissed |
Appealed from | Hennepin County |
Holding | |
OPINION:[1] Denial of the statutory entitlement demanded by gay citizens to marry the adult of one's choice "does not offend the . . . United States Constitution". | |
Court membership | |
Chief judge | Oscar Knutson |
Case opinions | |
Decision by | C. Donald Peterson |
Majority | unanimous |
Concurrence | Martin A. Nelson, William P. Murphy, James C. Otis, Walter F. Rogosheske, Fallon Kelly |
Laws applied | |
Minn.St. c. 517; U.S. Const. amends I, VIII, IX and XIV | |
Overruled by | |
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) |
Richard John Baker v. Gerald R. Nelson, 291 Minn. 310, 191 N.W.2d 185 (1971), was a case in which the Minnesota Supreme Court decided that construing a marriage statute to restrict marriage licenses to persons of the opposite sex "does not offend" the U.S. Constitution.[2] Baker appealed the decision, and on October 10, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the appeal "for want of a substantial federal question".[3]
Because the case came to the Supreme Court through mandatory appellate review (not certiorari), the dismissal constituted a decision on the merits and established Baker v. Nelson as precedent,[4] although the extent of its precedential effect had been subject to debate.[5] In May 2013, Minnesota legalized same-sex marriage and it took effect on August 1, 2013.[6] On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court explicitly overruled Baker in Obergefell v. Hodges, making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.[7]
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