Showing To Have and Uphold: The Supreme Court and the Battle for Same-Sex Marriage by Adam Liptak

THE DEFINITIVE STORY OF THE STRUGGLE OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, BY “NEW YORK TIMES” SUPREME COURT CORRESPONDENT ADAM LIPTAK

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions on same-sex marriage on June 26, 2013, made for an historic day. But the struggle for the rights of gay men and lesbians to marry is a tense, complex story that has been unfolding over many years—a story told in great sweep and detail by Adam Liptak in the New York Times / Byliner Original “To Have and Uphold.”

Liptak, the Supreme Court correspondent of the “New York Times,” who has been covering the same-sex marriage debate for years, takes readers into the lawyers’ offices and courtrooms, and through the arguments and opinions, where history has been debated and shaped. It is a tale filled with emotional ups and downs as proponents of same-sex marriage in California win a right, lose a ballot proposition, and debate whether to move the issue forward to a Supreme Court fight.

It is also a story with many ironies, perhaps none larger than the coming together of the lawyers David Boies and Ted Olson—who fought each other before the Court in Bush v. Gore—to press for the overturning of Proposition 8. Liptak, a 2009 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, weaves his narrative together with the kind of deep reporting and analysis that are hallmarks of his work. “To Have and Uphold” is truly a first draft of history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court for the “New York Times.” Liptak was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting in 2009 for “American Exception,” a series of articles examining ways in which the American legal system differs from those of other developed nations. He received the 2010 Scripps Howard Award for Washington reporting for a five-part series on the Roberts Court.