Within weeks of last summer's landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriages recognized, Proskauer's LGBT Affinity Group and the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) came together to host a poignant panel discussion in Proskauer's New York office.

The panel, "After Obergefell: A Conversation About the Supreme Court's Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage," featured an impressive group of experts: Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry; Tobias Barrington Wolff, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and Supreme Court correspondent for Slate; and Matt Skinner, executive director of LeGaL, and a Proskauer alumnus, who moderated.

The Supreme Court's decision elicited strong emotions from all of the panelists, who described where they were when they heard about the ruling. They discussed the implications of the ruling and its potential impact on the fight for federal non-discrimination laws – the next frontier for LGBT rights.

This panel discussion continues a tradition of bringing expert viewpoints to bear in the immediate aftermath of major civil rights court decisions. Proskauer hosted a similar session following the 2013 United States v. Windsor decision, in which the Supreme Court held that it was not Constitutional for federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to heterosexual unions.

 

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