The 14th amendment guarantees that the rights of citizens cannot be taken away and that every citizen is guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those three entities cannot be confiscated without due process of law. With that said, what happened to Andy in Philadelphia is a violation of the 14th amendment because his rights were taken away on the basis of his AIDS diagnosis. In the past, during the time period in which Philadelphia was set, AIDS had a severe stigma surrounding it. While courts are supposed to be unbiased, this stigma infiltrated the criminal justice system just as it did the greater society. Thus, due to the presence of this stigma in the courts, Andy was discriminated against based on his AIDS disease and therefore the 14th amendment was violated.
Same sex marriage speaks to the 14th amendment and due process under the law because it is an outright statement that same sex couples and homosexual individuals have equal protection under the law. Before the legalization of same sex marriage, courts could discriminate behind closed doors, but following Obergefell v Hodges, there is no more wiggle room for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In Philadelphia, the jury could have allowed for the stigma surrounding AIDS to influence there verdict, however they did not. Yet, in reality many juries have allowed societal stigmas to influence their verdicts, especially when it comes to sexual orientation. The legalization of same sex marriage makes it so stigma based verdicts are averted.
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