Brief

Appellants contend that the Fourteenth Amendment protects marriage as a fundamental right of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation. Therefore, appellants contend that Section 411, under which the clerk of Declaration County circuit court acted in denying appellants' request for a marriage license, must be unconstitutional. Appellants predicate their contentions on Lawrence v. Texas. Unfortunately for appellants, the holdings of Lawrence are too weak a wind to shift the ship of marriage from its historical and legal course.

To understand why Lawrence is inadequate for the purpose for which appellants invoke it, the Court must look to the right of marriage as it existed prior to Lawrence, and then decide whether the holdings of Lawrence stretch that right to encompass same-sex relationships.