Jack Baker

Michael McConnell and Jack Baker (both born in 1942) are gay-rights activists who were married in the U.S. state of Minnesota, Blue Earth County, on 3 September 1971. Marriage between two adult males was not forbidden by the marriage statute in Minnesota. The couple applied for a license to marry in Hennepin County. [18 May 1970] A letter delivered from the Office of County Attorney instructed the Clerk of District Court to deny their request. While an appeal of the clerk's action was pending in the Minnesota Supreme Court, McConnell re-applied, this time in Blue Earth County. That Clerk of District Court issued him a marriage license [16 August 1971] before the Minnesota Supreme Court published its opinion that the action by Hennepin County must be upheld. [15 October] Baker appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. See Baker v. Nelson. "Under the law at the time (since repealed) governing the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over appeals from state-court decisions, Baker v. Nelson reached the justices as a mandatory appeal." The county argued that the marriage license issued previously in Blue Earth County proved that the "Questions Raised by This Appeal Are Moot." The Court dismissed the appeal "for want of a substantial federal question". See Obergefell v. Hodges. Such action became a binding precedent on lower federal courts until 2015 when the Supreme Court declared that "Baker v. Nelson must be and now is overruled . . .". Historians insisted that McConnell and Baker became the "first same-sex couple in history to be legally married". Specifically, the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision in 1971 did "not reach back to Baker and McConnell" since the two obtained their license and were married "a full six weeks" previously. The National Archives came to the same conclusion. After 47 years of litigation, Assistant Chief Judge Gregory Anderson ruled that “The marriage is declared to be in all respects valid.”Baker and McConnell were activists in Minnesota from