Backlash Blunders: Obergefell and the Efficacy of Litigation to Achieve Social Change

On June 26, 2015, exactly two years after it invalidated key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) in United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court issued its historic 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, holding that same-sex couples could no longer be barred from exercising the fundamental right to marriage. For marriageequality supporters, this judicial victory represented “the culmination of decades of litigation and activism.” The gathering outside of the Supreme Court at the time of the ruling exuded an attitude of jubilation that spread throughout the country, as same-sex couples gathered in various cities to publicly celebrate the decision and, in many cases, to exercise their newly protected right to marry. Supporters of the Supreme Court’s holding also took to social media, as twenty-six