Code Adam Alert Program. On April 23, 2003, âThe Code Adam Act of 2003â became law. It requires the designated authority for a public building to establish procedures for a child missing in a federal facility. The General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service (PBS) will administer this program nationwide in both owned and leased buildings.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that the state constitution gives gay and lesbian couples the right to marry, making the Bay State the first in the nation to allow same-sex marriage. Weddings begin in 2004.
In a set of cases grouped under Obergefell v. Hodges, the high court ruled, 5-4, that states have to license same-sex marriages, as well as recognize same-sex marriages from other states. All four dissenting justices wrote dissents. Before the ruling, 13 states had same-sex marriage bans in place. The majority of the 37 states that recognized gay marriage did so as a result of federal court action. Those states' statuses had been in question with this ruling. The court could have instead upheld bans, which might have meant some of those states could have gone back to prohibiting gay marriage. Here's how the map of same-sex marriage laws will now change, as a result of this decision.