Romer v. Evans

The Court struck down a Colorado amendment barring legal protections for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people.

Overview

Colorado voters adopted Amendment 2, repealing and forbidding any state or local protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Justice Kennedy, for a 6-3 majority, held that the amendment imposed a broad disability on a single class of persons, withdrawing protection across the board, and was too anomalous to satisfy equal protection, unexplainable by anything but animus toward the class it affects. Romer was the first major gay rights victory in the Court, establishing that a bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot justify legislation, and set the doctrinal path toward Lawrence and Obergefell.