Just weeks after theSupreme Court overturnedRoe v. Wade, Texas Sen.Ted Cruzbelieves the court should reconsider another landmark case:Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage.
On Sunday’s episode of his podcast,Verdict With Ted Cruz, the Republican said the 2015 case that legalized gay marriage in the U.S. “was clearly wrong when it was decided.”
“It was the court overreaching,” Cruz added,USA Todayreports.
Ted Cruz.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty
The issue, Cruz suggested, is that the legality of same-sex marriage should be left to the states.
“Obergefell, likeRoe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz said. “Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states. We saw states beforeObergefell, some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards that the states were adopting.”
Back in May, PresidentJoe Bidenwarned that aSupreme Court decisiontooverturnRoe v. Wadecould have ramifications beyond the right to abortion, telling an audience at a Democratic fundraiser: “Mark my words: They are going to go after the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.”
Already, some members of the court have signaled a willingness to overturn other historic cases.
In his concurring opinion on the overturning ofRoe, Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Supreme Courtshould reconsiderGriswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. TexasandObergefell v. Hodges— the rulings that currently protect the right to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction, the right to same-sex relations, and the right to same-sex marriage.
From Thomas' concurring opinion: “… in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, includingGriswold,Lawrence, andObergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ … we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
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Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the historicObergefell v. Hodgecase, said in a statement sent to PEOPLE in June that Thomas is “not the Supreme Deity.”
“The millions of loving couples who have the right to marriage equality to form their own families do not need Clarence Thomas imposing his individual twisted morality upon them,” Obergefell said in his statement. “If you want to see an error in judgment, Clarence Thomas, look in the mirror.”
source: people.com
