December 14, 2020 1:12PM # Another Sign That SCOTUS Isn’t Going To Snatch Back The Freedom To Marry By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) --- SHARE Those who predict the Supreme Court has set out on a path to overturn *Obergefell*, the same-sex marriage case, lately pointed to the [Indiana birth-certificate case](https://www.wthr.com/article/news/nation-world/gay-parents-shouldnt-both-be-childs-birth-certificate-indiana-ag/507-4dffc5c3-7136-411c-9924-430add11fdf4) *Box* v. *Henderson* as a key domino they expected to fall. The case “could begin the rollback of marriage equality,” [claimed](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/box-henderson-indiana-marriage-equality-supreme-court.html) a headline at Slate; legal correspondent Mark Joseph Stern wrote that it could even “turn \[gay parents\] into legal strangers to their own kids.” At LGBTQ Nation, Bil Browning [warned](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/11/indiana-asks-supreme-court-strip-parental-rights-gay-couples-may-succeed/) that the “newly conservative court waited until far-right Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed” before considering the case. But in [this morning’s orders](https://supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/121420zor_8n59.pdf) the Court denied certiorari in *Box*, with no dissents noted. [ [![Two men in tuxedos putting rings on each other's fingers](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block/public/2020-11/marriage-equality-16x9.jpg?itok=3FmBcFCZ)](https://www.cato.org/events/marriage-equality-outlaws-laws) ##### Related Event ### *[Marriage Equality: From Outlaws to In‐​Laws](https://www.cato.org/events/marriage-equality-outlaws-laws)* As William Eskridge and Christopher Riano argue in their new book, [*Marriage Equality: From Outlaws to In‐​Laws*](https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Equality-Laws-William-Eskridge/dp/0300221819), the Supreme Court’s 2015 *Obergefell v. Hodges* ruling requiring states to recognize same‐​sex marriages came faster and with broader public support than anyone would have thought possible in 2001. This new book tells the inside story of the judicial deliberations in marriage equality cases but also defends these decisions from multiple perspectives. Joining Eskridge to discuss his book are leading Fourteenth Amendment scholar Steven Calabresi and former chairman of the National Organization for Marriage Maggie Gallagher. [Watch the Event](https://www.cato.org/events/marriage-equality-outlaws-laws) ](https://www.cato.org/events/marriage-equality-outlaws-laws) There had been much speculation about salami-slice rollbacks of *Obergefell* given Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas’s [loudly voiced discontents](https://www.cato.org/blog/would-judge-barretts-confirmation-call-question-rights-same-sex-marriage) at the start of this term on that case’s intersection with religious liberty, as well as the recent addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. I have [taken the view](https://cato.org/publications/commentary/gay-marriage-here-stay-even-conservative-court…) that even with religious liberty doctrine in considerable flux at the Court, as it is in the [foster-care-access case *Fulton* v. *Philadelphia*](https://www.cato.org/blog/should-foster-care-agencies-have-right-religious-accommodation) that the Court is now considering, the core freedom to marry announced in *Obergefell* itself is not in jeopardy. Last month Mark Joseph Stern [wrote in Slate](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/box-henderson-indiana-marriage-equality-supreme-court.html) of *Box* v. *Henderson*: “If the majority wants to begin eroding *Obergefell*, they will probably start here.” I agree, and conclude that today’s denial means the present Court doesn’t want to do that. ##### Related Tags [Supreme Court](https://www.cato.org/supreme-court), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).