Tennessee House passes resolution condemning Supreme Court gay ‘marriage’ decision
The
Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a motion saying the Supreme Court
case redefining marriage, Obergefell v. Hodges, was
wrongly decided and imposes a new understanding of the law “that is contrary to
the express will of this body and the vote of the people of Tennessee.”
A motion expressing legislators' views on the matter, House
Joint Resolution 0529, passed the state House last Wednesday by a vote of 73-18.
“I wrote this resolution because the legislature is without
standing to sue the court over their decree that purported to make new law in
Tennessee,” said Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Joliet.
Tennessee legislators voted to uphold marriage as the union of
one man and one woman in 1996, 2004, and 2005. Then, state voters approved a
constitutional marriage protection amendment by 81.3 percent in 2006.
Although the Obergefell case was supposed to have
“settled” the issue of same-sex “marriage,” polls show support for the new
definition declining, both nationwide and in Tennessee.
A poll released last November by Middle Tennessee State
University found that only 29
percent of Tennessee residents support redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. Meanwhile, 57
percent of Tennessee's citizens – including 44 percent of Democrats – oppose or
strongly oppose same-sex “marriage.”
The non-binding resolution is intended to bolster two lawsuits
filed by Williamson and Bradley Counties to stop clerks from issuing any
marriage licenses. The plaintiffs argue that, since the Supreme Court struck
down the state's marriage law as unconstitutional, and lawmakers have not
passed new law, there is no way to issue a valid marriage license in the state.
“This lawsuit does not deny that the Supreme Court has the power
of judicial review ,” said former state senator David Fowler, who is now acting
on behalf of theConstitutional
Government Defense Fund. Instead, he said, the lawsuit asks, “How
does anyone, regardless of the sexes of the parties, get a valid marriage
license pursuant to an invalid law?"
Rep. Lynn – who has won numerous awards from Tennessee Right to
Life (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2012) and was Eagle Forum's legislator of the
year in 2010 – agreed, “Our vote on this resolution affirms our state
sovereignty, and our guaranteed Constitutional right of separation of powers
and the doctrine of severability.”
This week, her motion was referred to the Senate Judiciary
Committee for further action.
The motion reads in full:
A RESOLUTION relative to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell
v. Hodges.
WHEREAS, on June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an
opinion in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, 576
U.S. ___ (No. 14-556, 2015 WL 2473451 (June 26, 2015)); and
WHEREAS, two years earlier, in the case of Windsor
v. United States, 570 U.S. ___ (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court said,
“[t]he whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and
child, belongs to the laws of the states, and not to the laws of the United
States”; and
WHEREAS, the Obergefell decision raises serious constitutional
issues regarding the constitutional doctrines of federalism and separation of
powers; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE
CONCURRING, that this body expresses its disagreement with the constitutional
analysis in Obergefell v. Hodges and the judicial imposition of a
marriage license law that is contrary to the express will of this body and the
vote of the people of Tennessee.
