Today, in Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires states to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state.

The opinion, authored by Justice Kennedy, makes same-sex marriage lawful in all states nationwide and has far-reaching implications in the 13 states that currently do not recognize same-sex marriage. The Court’s decision will also simplify and expand the application of a number of state and federal laws that grant certain rights and protections to spouses, including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

FMLA’s “state of celebration” rule

The FMLA allows eligible employees to take leave from their jobs to care for a spouse with a serious health condition (among other reasons). Until recently, many employees in same-sex marriages either could not qualify for FMLA leave to care for their spouse or were forced to overcome hurdles in proving the validity of their marriage in the state where they lived or the state where the marriage was celebrated.

In March, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) significantly simplified and expanded the FMLA’s spousal leave rule by changing the FMLA regulation’s definition of a covered spouse to be determined by the law of the state where the employee entered into his or her marriage. The final regulation changed FMLA’s rule for determining spousal coverage from the previous “place of residence” rule to a “place of celebration” rule.

The place of celebration rule allowed all legally married couples, whether opposite-sex or same-sex or married under common law, to have consistent federal family leave rights regardless of where they lived. The place of celebration rule allowed eligible employees to take spousal FMLA leave for same-sex and common-law spouses to care for the spouse with a serious health condition, specific types of leave for the spouse’s covered military service, and military caregiver leave for the same-sex spouse.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell makes same-sex marriage lawful in all states nationwide. As a result, employers making FMLA spousal leave eligibility determinations no longer need to consider state law in determining the validity of an employee’s same-sex marriage. All married couples will be covered, regardless of their sex, where they were married or where they live.

Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Nebraska

Just prior to the effective date of the DOL’s FMLA spousal leave rule, in April 2015, a U.S. District Court in Texas stopped the enforcement of the U.S. Department of Labor’s rule. As a result, of the Texas court’s decision, the four states involved in the case before the court, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Nebraska, continued to utilize the FMLA’s old “place of residence” test to determine eligibility for spousal leave. The Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell clearly dictates that employers in those four states must now recognize same-sex marriage in any state when making FMLA spousal leave eligibility determinations.

Marriages outside the United States

The final rule’s definition of spouse also expressly includes individuals in lawfully recognized same-sex and common-law marriages and marriages that were validly entered into outside of the United States, as long as the marriage is valid in the place where it was entered into, and could have been entered into in at least one state of the United States (i.e., in a state that authorizes same-sex marriages).

Domestic partnerships and civil unions

FMLA’s definition of a covered spouse requires that the employee be married. Domestic partnerships and civil unions do not constitute marriages under the FMLA; therefore, they are not protected. Common-law marriages, however, are protected if they are legally recognized in the state in which the marriage occurred.