Gay rights have already come a long way in the protection against discrimination. They have protected discrimination in work places and, most recently, protected discrimination of gays in a place of business. While, over the past few years, there has been huge progress on gay marriage, it is still not equal across the United States. The most compelling argument that I read in my law reviews was the argument under the Due Process Clause.
The Due Process Clause became a valid argument for a right to privacy during the mid sixties. During this time marriage privacy cases such as, Griswold v. Connecticut, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, opened up a door for the Due Process Clause to benefit plaintiffs seeking privacy.
The Due Process Clause says that states may not deprive persons of
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This started in 1965 when the court allowed the use of contraceptives to be allowed and the decisions relating to marriage and procreation and ruled that the Constitution protected a right to privacy. This right to privacy excelled in 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled to strike down the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law in Lawrence v. Texas. The court in this case, did not apply strict scrutiny and instead used the rational basis test and still could not find a legitimate state interest, which impacted one class of people.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has proved to be a logical argument for homosexuals to establish the right to marriage. This argument has prevailed in Massachusetts, Iowa and Connecticut. However, this argument, so far, has only prevailed at the state level, and has not succeeded in the Supreme Court. In contrast, the Due Process Clause over the years has proven to persuade the Court in the past to protect individual rights to privacy. This, in my opinion, would be the best route to take in getting gay marriage recognized on a national