Same-sex Marriage Zombie Laws in the United States
Use this interactive graphic to see which laws banning same-sex marriage remain on state law books even after they were found to violate the US Constitution a decade ago. Thirty-two states and Puerto Rico still have such constitutional amendments or statutes. These laws were found by the U.S. Supreme Court to be unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), and the court declined to take up a challenge to that precedent in 2025. However, these so-called “zombie laws” remain on state law books, and they are not innocuous. They confront the dignity of anyone who cares to look up marriage laws in their place of residence. And, if the Supreme Court were to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges in the future, the laws would immediately come back into enforceability and affect spousal inheritance, medical insurance, family leave, legal custody of children, and more for approximately 400,000 married same-sex households in the US.