Wedding reading
from Obergefell v. Hodges
Justice Anthony Kennedy
“from Obergefell v. Hodges” by Justice Anthony Kennedy is a prose reading read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about a minute and a half read aloud, usually by the officiant. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
The closing paragraph of the 2015 marriage decision, ending on the line the whole country quoted. It carries further from the officiant than from a guest reader.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: no union is more profound than marriage · equal dignity in the eyes of the law · a same-sex wedding · marriage equality · two grooms · two brides · a civil ceremony · a courthouse wedding · a couple who waited a long time · love that may endure even past death · formal.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “from Obergefell v. Hodges” take to read aloud?
“from Obergefell v. Hodges” takes about a minute and a half read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “from Obergefell v. Hodges”?
Usually the officiant rather than a guest reader. “from Obergefell v. Hodges” runs about a minute and a half, which sits inside the part of the service the officiant is already leading, and keeping it there means it is carried by the person who has rehearsed it.
Can “from Obergefell v. Hodges” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
en.wikisource.org · justice.gov
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- On Marriage, from The Propheta minute and a halfKahlil Gibran
- On Becoming Real, from The Velveteen Rabbit55 secondsMargery Williams
- from the Symposium — the speech of Aristophanestwo minutesPlato, tr. Benjamin Jowett
- from Jane Eyre — ten years marrieda minute and a halfCharlotte Brontë
- from a letter to Fanny Brawne, 13 October 181925 secondsJohn Keats
- from Les Misérables — the supreme happiness15 secondsVictor Hugo, tr. Isabel F. Hapgood