Varnum v. Brien

Varnum v. Brien
Court	Iowa Supreme Court
Full case name	Katherine Varnum, Patricia Hyde, Dawn Barbouroske, Jennifer Barbouroske, Jason Morgan, Charles Swaggerty, David Twombley, Lawrence Hoch, William M. Musser, Otter Dreaming, Ingrid Olson, and Reva Evans vs. Timothy J. Brien,, In His Official Capacities as the Polk County Recorder and Polk County Registrar
Decided	April 3, 2009
Citation	763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009)
Case history
Prior actions	Judgment for plaintiffs, Polk County District Court
Court membership
Chief judge	Marsha Ternus
Associate judges	Mark Cady, Michael Streit, David Wiggins, Daryl Hecht, Brent R. Appel, and David L. Baker
Case opinions
Majority	Cady, joined by unanimous

Varnum v. Brien, 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009),^[1] was an Iowa Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that the state's limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. The case had the effect of legally recognizing same-sex marriage in Iowa. In 2007, a lower court had granted summary judgment in favor of six same-sex couples who sued Timothy Brien, Polk County Recorder, for refusing to grant them marriage licenses.

In 2010, Iowa voters defeated the retention of three of the judges responsible for the decision. However, in 2012, voters retained the one judge who participated in the decision and whose term would otherwise have ended, following various polls showing that a majority of Iowans support same-sex marriage.