Same-sex marriage in Nebraska

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Nebraska since June 26, 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges that the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Following the court ruling, Attorney General Doug Peterson announced that the state of Nebraska would comply and recognize same-sex marriages. Previously, a lawsuit challenging the ban, Waters v. Ricketts, had been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska in November 2014. Judge Joseph Bataillon declared the ban unconstitutional on March 2, 2015, but the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay four days later. Judge Bataillon had also declared the ban unconstitutional in Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning on May 12, 2005, but that decision was overturned on appeal by the Eighth Circuit in July 2006.

Nebraska had previously denied marriage rights to same-sex couples in its State Constitution since 2000. Polling suggests that a majority of Nebraska residents support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

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