Varnum V. Brien

Varnum v. Brien, 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009), is a unanimous decision of the Iowa Supreme Court dated April 3, 2009, that held the state's limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. It established same-sex marriage in Iowa. In 2007, a lower court had granted summary judgment in favor of six same-sex couples who sued Timothy Brien, Polk County Recorder, for refusing to grant them marriage licenses.

In 2010 Iowa voters defeated the retention of three of the judges responsible for the decision, but in 2012 they retained the one judge who participated in the decision and whose term would otherwise have ended, following various polls showing that a majority of Iowans support marriage equality.