## Facts

- Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell, two adult men, applied for a marriage license in Hennepin County under Minn. Stat. § 517.08.
- The county clerk refused to issue the license solely because the applicants were of the same sex.
- It was undisputed that neither applicant had any other statutory impediment to marriage if the applicants had been an opposite-sex couple.
- The applicants sought a writ of mandamus in district court to compel issuance of the license.
- The district court quashed the alternative writ of mandamus, held the clerk had no duty to issue the license, and specifically directed that no license be issued.
- The applicants appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether Minnesota’s marriage statutes authorize marriage between two persons of the same sex.
2. If not authorized, whether excluding same-sex couples from marriage violates the First, Eighth, Ninth, or Fourteenth Amendments, including claims of a fundamental right to marry and unconstitutional discrimination.

## Decision

- The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s order denying mandamus relief and refusing the license.
- The court held Minn. Stat. ch. 517 does not authorize same-sex marriage and, properly read, prohibits it.
- The court held that this statutory exclusion does not violate the First, Eighth, Ninth, or Fourteenth Amendments.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory terms are construed according to common usage when the legislative scheme indicates adoption of the ordinary meaning.
- A marriage statute referring to “marriage” in ordinary usage, and employing terms such as “husband and wife” and “bride and groom,” may be interpreted as limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.
- A state’s limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples, as defined by statute, was not deemed (under the court’s analysis) to violate due process or equal protection, nor to be invalid under the First, Eighth, or Ninth Amendments.

## Conclusion

The court interpreted Minnesota’s marriage statutes as authorizing only opposite-sex marriage and concluded that denying a marriage license to a same-sex couple under that statutory definition was not unconstitutional under the asserted federal constitutional provisions.


Baker v. Nelson, 191 N.W.2d 185 (Minn. 1971)