Minister of Home Affairs and Another v. Fourie and Another
South Africa Constitutional Court
CCT 60/04 and 10/05, [2005] ZACC 19, 2006 (3) BCLR 355 (CC), 2006 (1) SA 524 (CC) (2005)
- Written by Kelly Simon, JD
Facts
Marié Fourie and Cecelia Bonthuys (plaintiffs) were two women who wished to marry in South Africa. The South African common law and the country’s Marriage Act did not provide any means through which individuals of the same sex, such as Fourie and Bonthuys, could marry. Fourie and Bonthuys asked the Pretoria High Court to issue an order affirming their right to marry and a mandamus requiring the minister of home affairs (defendant) to register their marriage under the Marriage Act. After a series of court decisions, appeals, and cross-appeals involving the specifics of the constitutional questions raised by the litigation, the South Africa Constitutional Court considered whether the absence of legal methods for same-sex couples to marry in South Africa constituted unfair discrimination and an equal-protection violation under the constitution.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Sachs, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
