November 10, 2025: The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to revisit marriage equality as it relates to same-sex marriages. Millions of Americans can breathe a sigh of relief for their marriages and families. The Supreme Court’s recent refusal to hear an appeal seeking to overturn its precedent on same-sex marriage further cements the protections established by Windsor and the Respect for Marriage Act (see below). For immigration law purposes, same-sex spouses are treated the same as opposite-sex spouses under federal law for seeking immigration benefits in the United States.
- Eligibility for benefits: Same-sex couples are eligible for a range of family-based immigration benefits, including:
- Family reunification
- K visas
- Sponsoring stepchildren
- Hardship waivers
- Protection for survivors: Same-sex couples are now included in protections for domestic violence survivors that were previously unavailable.
- United States v. Windsor (2013): This Supreme Court decision struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which had previously defined marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. The ruling meant that same-sex couples could access federal benefits, including immigration benefits, previously denied to them.
- Respect for Marriage Act (2022): This law was signed to provide a nationwide safeguard for same-sex marriages. It repeals the remaining parts of DOMA and guarantees that all states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. This acts as an additional layer of protection for immigration benefits, even if other related legal precedents were to be challenged.
The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v Hodges. Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple denied a marriage license. Her lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.
For more information on Same-Sex Marriages,
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