Dean v. District of Columbia

I join Judge FeRREn’s compelling analysis of appellants’ several arguments in Parts L, II., III., and V. of his comprehensive opinion. However, in my judgment, the marriage statute must be sustained as well against the challenge under constitutional equal protection, applicable within the District of Columbia through the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. See Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 499-500, 74 S.Ct. 693, 694-95, 98 L.Ed. 884 (1954).

My initial difficulty with a postulate of appellants’ analysis, reflected in Judge Fer-ren’s discussion of equal protection, is its treatment of…