On Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, saying it was “clearly wrong when it was decided.”
In a recent episode of his podcast, Cruz argued the ruling is vulnerable in the wake of the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last month.
Here’s what Cruz said in the podcast Verdict+:
“Obergefell, like Roe versus Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history. In Obergefell, the court said, ‘no, we know better than you guys do,’ and now every state must sanction and permit gay marriage. I think that decision was clearly wrong when it was decided. It was the court overreaching.”
Cruz was referring to Obergefell v. Hodges (pdf), the 2015 Supreme Court decision in which the 5–4 majority ruled that the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee the fundamental right to marry to same-sex couples.
The Texas senator takes the position that policies on issues such as gay marriage and abortion should be left to state legislatures to shape.
The Supreme Court decision made it illegal for any state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories to deny a marriage certificate to same-sex couples.
Ted Cruz says he wants to overturn marriage for gay people. pic.twitter.com/eXCgBRaJmF
— Really American (@ReallyAmerican1) July 16, 2022
Highlighted below are the exchange of conversations between Sen. Cruz and his guest, conservative commentator, Liz Wheeler:
He argued that the ruling was not rightly decided. He made a similar argument to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurring opinion formally overturning Roe v. Wade in June.
“Obergefell, like Roe v Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz told his guest, conservative commentator, Liz Wheeler.
Wheeler then asked him what the arguments would be to overturn Obergefell.
“Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states,” he said.
“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,” Cruz said.
He then argued that “the democratic process would have continued to operate” if the Court had not ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.
Cruz argued that the Court essentially said, “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.”
Gay marriage could be next to go as a national right, assuming the Supreme Court falls in line with Ted Cruz’s thinking here. https://t.co/FBc3mvVWd7
— TMZ (@TMZ) July 16, 2022
In the Dobbs decision, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion that Roe and abortion were separate issues from other rights to privacy cases and the decision should not be seen as the court threatening other precedents unrelated to abortion.
Still, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion, arguing the court should “correct the error” of rulings that protect same-sex marriage and contraception access.
However, Thomas’ concurring opinion raised alarms within the LGBTQ community. Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” The justice contended that those precedents were “demonstrably erroneous,” The Gateway Pundit noted.
Source: TheGatewayPundit