Supreme Court rulings protecting same-sex relationships could face challenge

Katie Barlow on the overturning of Roe V. Wade and impact on other cases

Justice Clarence Thomas says the Supreme Court should reconsider rulings that protect access to contraception and same-sex marriage in the ruling overturning Roe V. Wade.

WASHINGTON - Justice Clarence Thomas said that the Supreme Court should reconsider rulings that legalized same-sex marriage and protected same-sex relationships and contraception in his concurring opinion in favor of Mississippi in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. This decision overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling which legalized abortion nationwide.

The conservative justice wrote that the court should reconsider cases that fall under the Supreme Court previous due process precedents. Thomas wrote: "For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell."

Thomas' opinion is not a binding precedent, unlike the majority opinion. However, it could lead the path to further challenges to three key court decisions that protect contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage, which marks its 7th anniversary on Sunday.

The watershed 2015 Obergefell vs. Hodges case ruled in favor of same-sex marriage and thereby legalizing same-sex marriage across the United States.

The 2003 Lawrence v. Texas case decided that making it a crime for members of the same sex from having intimate sexual relations violates the due process clause.

The 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision ruled that people have the right to privacy granted by the Bill of Rights that protects against state restrictions on contraception.

The Due Process Clause in the 14th amendment says that "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 landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case legalized abortion nationwide. Jane Roe, an unmarried pregnant woman, filed suit on behalf of herself and others to challenge abortion laws in Texas. At the time, abortion was illegal in Texas unless it was done to save the mother's life. Today's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade sets in motion a series of events that will likely lead to abortion being banned or severely restricted in roughly half of the 50 states.