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Republican lawmakers in the Idaho state legislature have authored a resolution demanding that the U.S. Supreme Court overturn its 2015 decision recognizing marriage equality throughout the country.
House Joint Memorial 1 was introduced last week by the House State Affairs Committee. Although it is a nonbinding resolution, the legislation would make a formal declaration by the Idaho House of Representatives, calling for the Supreme Court to allow states once again to determine whether same-sex marriages should be recognized within their jurisdictions.
The resolution makes the false assertion that the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges “causes collateral damage” to other constitutional rights, “including religious liberty” — a common refrain of right-wingers who believe their conservative beliefs should outweigh the personal freedoms of others.
“The Idaho Legislature rejects the Obergefell decision … [and] calls upon the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse Obergefell and restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman,” the resolution states, citing errant and outdated beliefs regarding what constitutes a “natural” union.
Sarah Warbelow, vice president for legal affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, condemned the resolution as a clear attack on LGBTQ people.
“Extremist attacks have become de rigueur, and LGBTQ+ Americans are right to be concerned about their escalation. This cruel action by Idaho Republicans amounts to nothing more than shouting at the wind,” Warbelow said.
If the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell, that ruling would be unlikely to affect the Respect for Marriage Act, which established federal protections for same-sex marriage in 2022.
However, that law does not require states to uphold such protections — and if Obergefell were overturned, dozens of states would automatically revert to anti-marriage equality statutes and state constitutional provisions.
Concern over the Supreme Court considering challenges to Obergefell came following the Court’s anti-abortion ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Within that opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas submitted a concurring ruling, calling for past decisions that relied upon a right to privacy standard — including Obergefell — to be reexamined.
Although human rights protections should not be determined by polling data, recent surveys show that most Americans disagree with measures like the recently introduced Idaho resolution.
The latest Gallup poll on marriage equality, published last year, shows that 69 percent of Americans are supportive of same-sex marriages being recognized the same way that opposite-sex marriages are by state and federal governments. And polling from 2022 found that a plurality of Idaho residents (49 percent) are supportive of marriage equality within the state, with only 37 percent saying they wanted such unions to be deemed illegal if Obergefell were to be overturned.
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