North Dakota Senate rejects resolution asking Supreme Court to reverse same-sex marriage ruling

The North Dakota Senate on Thursday rejected a resolution that would have asked the Supreme Court to revisit its landmark 2015 ruling on marriage equality.

Senators voted 31-16 against the resolution, introduced in January by Republican state Rep. Bill Tveit. It would have called on the Supreme Court to overturn its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges and “leave unaddressed the natural definition of marriage as a union between one man, a biological male, and one woman, a biological female.”

“It’s past time for the good citizens to speak their displeasure with this Supreme Court decision, and call for restoration of the definition of marriage as only of the legal union between a man and woman,” Tveit said while testifying in favor of the resolution in February.

“If same-sex couples desire a collaborative union of a sort, or a legal bonding, they must call it anything but marriage,” he said.

North Dakota state Rep. Austin Foss, a Democrat and one of three openly gay men in the state Legislature, said he never thought he and his husband, whom he married last year, would have to fight to be recognized as a married couple under the law.

“This hurts,” Foss said in February. “I don’t come into your church, into your home, and force you to relabel your relationship just because I don’t agree with it.”

The North Dakota House passed the measure Feb. 24 on a 52-40 vote, with 29 Republicans voting with all Democrats to reject it. State senators voted on the measure Thursday after just 10 minutes of debate.

In a statement following Thursday’s vote, Cody Schuler, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, said rejecting the resolution “was the right thing to do.”

“We’re disappointed, however, that because of the blind vote, North Dakotans will not be able to see how their senators voted,” he said. “Advocating for the reversal of Obergefell v. Hodges disregards the progress made toward inclusivity and equal rights and undermines the pluralistic and inclusive fabric of our society, and our elected leaders need to be accountable to their constituents with their votes.”

“North Dakota has many real, complex problems that the legislature should be addressing. Our legislators shouldn’t be wasting time on toothless virtue-signaling,” Schuler said.

GOP lawmakers in at least four states this year have introduced resolutions that, if passed, would ask the Supreme Court to overturn its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) publicly rebuked a similar effort by state House Republicans to request the court reverse the landmark ruling.

Nationwide, support for marriage equality remains high, though it dipped slightly last year driven in large part by opposition from Republicans, according to Gallup. A recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that Americans in states where same-sex marriage would remain legal if Obergefell v. Hodges were overturned are more likely to support marriage equality than those in states where it would become illegal.

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