Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has argued that the Supreme Court never should have legalized gay marriage, calling the decision ‘clearly wrong.’
On his show, Verdict with Ted Cruz, the Texas senator discussed the ‘vulnerability’ of the Obergefell v Hodges decision following the Supreme Court’s historic decision to overturn its landmark ruling granting abortion rights across the country.
In Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the right to marry is guaranteed by the Due Process Clause nd the Equal Process Clause of the 14th Amendment – thereby guaranteeing gay couples the right to get married across the United States.
‘Obergefell, like Roe v Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,’ Cruz said on Saturday when conservative commentator Liz Wheeler asked him what the arguments would be to overturn Obergefell.
‘Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states,’ he continued. ‘We saw states before Obergefell – some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards the states were adopting.’
He then argued that if the Supreme Court had not ruled the way it did ‘the democratic process would have continued to operate.’
Texas Sen Ted Cruz argued on Saturday that the Supreme Court’s decision allowing gay marriage was ‘clearly wrong’
But, he said, in Obergefell, ‘the Court said “No we know better than you, and now every state must sanction and permit gay marriage.
‘That decision was clearly wrong when it was decided,’ Cruz said, adding that the court was ‘overreaching.’
Still, he noted, the Supreme Court’s decision overturning the landmark Roe v Wade case suggested that Obergefell would be treated differently.
‘In Dobbs, what the Supreme Court said is “Roe is different because it’s the only one of the cases that involves the taking of a human life, and it’s qualitatively different,’ he said. ‘I agree with that proposition.’
He told conservative commentator Liz Wheeler that the decision should have been left up to the states
In Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the right to marry is guaranteed by the Constitution. People are seen celebrating outside the Supreme Court following the decision
His remarks come just one month after the Supreme Court struck down its landmark decision guaranteeing women the right to an abortion.
The Supreme Court ruled that Roe v Wade was wrongly decided last month, effectively leaving it up to each individual state to determine whether to legalize abortions, with at least 18 states now banning it.
In his decision, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that ‘nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.’
But his colleague, Justice Clarence Thomascalled for his fellow justices to ‘reconsider’ and potentially overturn other cases decided on the legal authority of ‘substantive due process.’
Substantive due process refers to the idea that people have fundamental rights that are not specifically laid out in the Constitution – and was the basis for a number of landmark cases including Loving v Virginia.
‘In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell,’ Thomas wrote.
He was specifically referring to the 1965 Griswold v Connecticut decision, which allows married couples to access birth control; and the 2003 Lawrence v Texas decision, which forbids states from outlawing consensual gay sex.
That decision ultimately led up to the 2015 Obergefell v Hodges decision that established a Constitutional right to gay marriage.
The Obergefell case also rested on the precedent of the Loving decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled: ‘There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.’
