Tanco v. Haslam
Complaint filed 10/21/2013, SCOTUS ruling issued 6/26/2015
On October 21, 2013 NCLR filed a lawsuit on behalf of 3 legally married same-sex couples, challenging TN laws preventing the state from respecting their marriages. The District Court ruled that TN officials must recognize the couples’ marriages while their lawsuit was pending, which the state appealed. In the appeal, the Sixth Circuit ordered that the case be assigned to a panel of judges for decision, and the panel ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage in Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio did not violate the U.S. Constitution and upheld the bans. Cases in all four states then asked the US Supreme Court to hear their case, and on June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court held the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision affirming marriage equality across the country.
