Baehr v. Lewin and the Long Road to Marriage Equality Michael D.
Sant'Ambrogio Michigan State University - College of Law Sylvia
Ann Law New York University School of Law May 28, 2011
University of Hawaii Law Review, Vol. 33, 2011 NYU School of
Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 11-37 In 1993, the Hawai‘i
Supreme Court held in Baehr v. Lewin that excluding same-sex
couples from marriage was presumptively invalid under the
Hawai‘i Constitution because it discriminated on the basis of
sex. Consequently, the exclusion could only be upheld if the
State could demonstrate that it “furthers compelling state
interests and is narrowly drawn to avoid unnecessary abridgments
of constitutional rights.” This decision marked the first
victory in the marriage equality movement in America. Baehr and
its progeny have generated an important debate in legal and
social science literature about whether “early” civil rights
victories are incremental steps forward or precipitate a
damaging backlash. The paper argues that, on balanc