Georgia Definition of Marriage, Amendment 1 (2004)
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The Georgia Definition of Marriage Amendment, also known as Amendment 1, was on the November 2, 2004 ballot in Georgia as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment, where it was approved. The measure provided that the state only recognized marriage as a union between a man and a woman.[1][2]
Aftermath
U.S. Supreme Court
- See also: Obergefell v. Hodges
On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution in the case Obergefell v. Hodges. This ruling overturned all voter-approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.[3]
Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the opinion and Justices Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito each authored a dissent.
The concluding paragraph of the court's majority opinion read:
| “ | No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.[4] | ” |
| —Opinion of the Court in Obergefell v. Hodges[5] | ||
Election results
| Georgia Amendment 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Yes | 2,454,930 | 76.15% | ||
| No | 768,716 | 23.85% | ||
Election results via:Georgia Secretary of State
Text of measure
The text of the measure can be found here.
Financing the campaign
$92,765 was spent to promote the measure, while nothing was spent to oppose it.
The two major donors to the pro-campaign were:
- Yes! Marriage Amendment Alliance, $75,115.
- Focus on the Family Georgia Marriage Amendment Committee, $17,650.[6]
Related measures
Voters approved ballot measures to define marriage as between one male and one female in the following 30 states. The first such measure was in 1998, and the latest one occurred in May 2012. Bans on same-sex marriage were invalidated in the 2015 United States Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges.
- 1998: Alaska
- 2000: Nebraska
- 2002: Nevada
- 2004: Arkansas
- 2004: Georgia
- 2004: Kentucky
- 2004: Louisiana
- 2004: Michigan
- 2004: Mississippi
- 2004: Missouri
- 2004: Montana
- 2004: North Dakota
- 2004: Ohio
- 2004: Oklahoma
- 2004: Oregon
- 2004: Utah
- 2005: Kansas
- 2005: Texas
- 2006: Alabama
- 2006: Colorado
- 2006: Idaho
- 2006: South Carolina
- 2006: South Dakota
- 2006: Tennessee
- 2006: Virginia
- 2006: Wisconsin
- 2008: Arizona
- 2008: California
- 2008: Florida
- 2012: North Carolina
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "Georgia Election Results," accessed October 28, 2015
- ↑ The Cedartown Standard,"Election 2004 Sample Ballot," October 28, 2004
- ↑ NPR, "Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal In All 50 States," June 26, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, "Obergefell v. Hodges," June 26, 2015
- ↑ Follow the Money database for Georgia Constitutional Amendment 1 (2004)
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