Stan Baker v. State of Vermont

Summary

The Court held that Vermont's marriage statutes do not authorize same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses because the statutory scheme reflects the plain and ordinary meaning of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. It nevertheless held that excluding same-sex couples from the statutory benefits and protections incident to marriage violates the Common Benefits Clause because the exclusion bears no reasonable and just relation to the State's asserted purposes. The Court left the Legislature to determine whether to provide those benefits through marriage itself or an equivalent statutory scheme and suspended the effect of its decision to allow orderly legislative action. Justice Dooley concurred in the result but criticized the majority's constitutional rationale, while Justice Johnson concurred in the constitutional holding but would have ordered immediate issuance of marriage licenses.