As a young man in the 1970s, gay activist and attorney Jack Baker claimed many "firsts" in his life — first gay student-body president of any university, first attempted gay marriage, first adult adoption of one’s same-sex partner. Today, the first Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage — a nearly 40-year-old case bearing his name — links him to perhaps the most important civil rights suit of the decade.
In Baker v. Nelson, the justices in 1972 summarily dismissed an appeal by Baker and his life partner, Michael McConnell, who argued their constitutional rights had been violated by Minnesota’s refusal to grant them a marriage license. The justices, in a one-sentence order, dismissed their case "for want of a substantial federal question," leaving in place a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling.
