Location
Bell Jones Courtroom, Mercer University School of Law
Start Date
24-10-2025 11:00 AM
End Date
24-10-2025 12:30 PM
Description
This panel will likely discuss the extent future viability of the Obergefell legacy in light of recent Supreme Court decisions, such as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and Department of State v. Muñoz, which have retreated from both the substantive due process jurisprudence that underpinned Obergefell and the traditionally robust understanding of constitutional marriage rights. This continuing viability may rely on alternative rationales such as stare decisis, equal protection, or even religion clause principles. Panelists might also choose to discuss recent First Amendment jurisprudence as it threatens to narrow the rights of same-sex spouses.
Gary Simson is Macon Chair in Law at Mercer University School of Law. Since graduating from Yale College and Yale Law School and clerking for a federal appellate judge, Simson has taught in several law schools—Cornell and Mercer in particular, but also The University of Texas and Case Western Reserve for several years apiece. Professor Simson served as Dean at Mercer and Case Western Reserve School of Law and as Associate Dean at Cornell Law School. Simson teaches and writes in Constitutional Law, Freedom of Religion, Conflict of Laws, and Statutory Law.
Jon Davidson is a 40-year-veteran, LGBTQ-rights attorney who has litigated some of the country’s most significant legal victories for LGBTQ plaintiffs, ranging from marriage rights, to HIV discrimination, to students’ rights, to employment protections. Mr. Davidson started his legal career as a law clerk for the late United States District Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr., before climbing the ladder to become a litigation partner in a leading Los Angeles law firm. In 1988, Davidson left the private sector to embark on a lifelong public interest career. Davidson started at the ACLU of Southern California, where he went on to head the Affiliate’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. Davidson then spent more than 22 years with Lambda Legal, the nation’s largest LGBTQ-rights legal organization, where he was Senior Counsel and then Legal Director. At Lambda Legal, Davidson served as co-counsel in numerous state court cases seeking marriage equality and then in Obergefell v. Hodges. Davidson now serves as Senior Counsel for the national American Civil Liberty Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, where he litigates on behalf of LGBTQ and HIV-positive individuals. Davidson currently is lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Orr v. Trump, in which a nationwide preliminary injunction has been granted against the Trump administration’s anti-transgender passport policy. Davidson received his B.A. from Stanford University with honors and Phi Beta Kappa and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Suzanne Goldberg is the Herbert and Doris Wecshler Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Professor Goldberg started her legal career clerking for Justice Marie Garibaldi on the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She then spent nine years as a Staff Attorney for Lambda Legal, where she worked on the landmark gay-rights cases Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas. Goldberg has been a law professor at Fordham Law School, Rutgers University School of Law, and Columbia Law School, becoming one of the nation’s premier scholars on gender and sexuality law. Goldberg was previously Director of Rutgers’s Women’s Rights Litigation Clinic and was the founder of Columbia Law’s Center for Sexuality and Gender. In the Biden Administration, Professor Goldberg was appointed a Senior Advisor for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights in the United States Department of State, and she served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. Professor Goldberg graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University and received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Eric J. Segall is the Ashe Family Chair Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law, where he has spent over thirty years. Segall has focused his scholarship on constitutional law, originalism, judicial power, and individual rights. Segall clerked for United States Chief District Judge Charles A. Moye, Jr., on the Northern District of Georgia and for Judge Albert J. Henderson, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. After clerking, Segall worked as an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher before becoming a Trial Attorney for the United States Department of Georgia. Professor Segall graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University and received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he graduated Order of the Coif.
Recommended Citation
Davidson, Jon; Goldberg, Suzanne; and Segall, Eric J., "The Constitutional Law Legacy of the Freedom-to-Marry Movement - Moderator: Gary Simson" (2025). Mercer Law Review Symposium. 4.
https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/symposium/freedom_to_marry/friday/4
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Family Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons
The Constitutional Law Legacy of the Freedom-to-Marry Movement - Moderator: Gary Simson
Bell Jones Courtroom, Mercer University School of Law
This panel will likely discuss the extent future viability of the Obergefell legacy in light of recent Supreme Court decisions, such as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and Department of State v. Muñoz, which have retreated from both the substantive due process jurisprudence that underpinned Obergefell and the traditionally robust understanding of constitutional marriage rights. This continuing viability may rely on alternative rationales such as stare decisis, equal protection, or even religion clause principles. Panelists might also choose to discuss recent First Amendment jurisprudence as it threatens to narrow the rights of same-sex spouses.
Gary Simson is Macon Chair in Law at Mercer University School of Law. Since graduating from Yale College and Yale Law School and clerking for a federal appellate judge, Simson has taught in several law schools—Cornell and Mercer in particular, but also The University of Texas and Case Western Reserve for several years apiece. Professor Simson served as Dean at Mercer and Case Western Reserve School of Law and as Associate Dean at Cornell Law School. Simson teaches and writes in Constitutional Law, Freedom of Religion, Conflict of Laws, and Statutory Law.
Jon Davidson is a 40-year-veteran, LGBTQ-rights attorney who has litigated some of the country’s most significant legal victories for LGBTQ plaintiffs, ranging from marriage rights, to HIV discrimination, to students’ rights, to employment protections. Mr. Davidson started his legal career as a law clerk for the late United States District Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr., before climbing the ladder to become a litigation partner in a leading Los Angeles law firm. In 1988, Davidson left the private sector to embark on a lifelong public interest career. Davidson started at the ACLU of Southern California, where he went on to head the Affiliate’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. Davidson then spent more than 22 years with Lambda Legal, the nation’s largest LGBTQ-rights legal organization, where he was Senior Counsel and then Legal Director. At Lambda Legal, Davidson served as co-counsel in numerous state court cases seeking marriage equality and then in Obergefell v. Hodges. Davidson now serves as Senior Counsel for the national American Civil Liberty Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, where he litigates on behalf of LGBTQ and HIV-positive individuals. Davidson currently is lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Orr v. Trump, in which a nationwide preliminary injunction has been granted against the Trump administration’s anti-transgender passport policy. Davidson received his B.A. from Stanford University with honors and Phi Beta Kappa and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Suzanne Goldberg is the Herbert and Doris Wecshler Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Professor Goldberg started her legal career clerking for Justice Marie Garibaldi on the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She then spent nine years as a Staff Attorney for Lambda Legal, where she worked on the landmark gay-rights cases Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas. Goldberg has been a law professor at Fordham Law School, Rutgers University School of Law, and Columbia Law School, becoming one of the nation’s premier scholars on gender and sexuality law. Goldberg was previously Director of Rutgers’s Women’s Rights Litigation Clinic and was the founder of Columbia Law’s Center for Sexuality and Gender. In the Biden Administration, Professor Goldberg was appointed a Senior Advisor for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights in the United States Department of State, and she served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. Professor Goldberg graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University and received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Eric J. Segall is the Ashe Family Chair Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law, where he has spent over thirty years. Segall has focused his scholarship on constitutional law, originalism, judicial power, and individual rights. Segall clerked for United States Chief District Judge Charles A. Moye, Jr., on the Northern District of Georgia and for Judge Albert J. Henderson, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. After clerking, Segall worked as an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher before becoming a Trial Attorney for the United States Department of Georgia. Professor Segall graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University and received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he graduated Order of the Coif.