The court has bundled appeals of lower court rulings about the laws of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee under the title of the Ohio case, Obergefell v. Hodges. That case arose after the October 2013 death of John Arthur of Cincinnati. He and his longtime partner, James Obergefell, had married earlier that year in Maryland. When the local Ohio registrar agreed to list Obergefell as the surviving spouse on Arthur's death certificate — which is key to a range of survivor's benefits — the state attorney general challenged the status because Ohio law bars same-sex marriages.
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