Ted Cuz Says Court Was Wrong on Marriage Equality, Duty To Correct Error

GayNrd Editors July 17, 2022

Ted Cruz said in a YouTube video Saturday that the Supreme Court was wrong on marriage equality.

Cruz, a Texas Republican, said Saturday that he believes the Supreme Court was “clearly wrong” when it decided in a historic 2015 ruling that same-sex marriage was legal under the Constitution.
Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark LGBTQ rights case, was decided in a 5 to 4 ruling in June 2015. 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, citing the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
In a video uploaded to YouTube from his Verdict+ podcast, Cruz discussed what was described as the “vulnerability” of the Obergefell ruling. He argued that the ruling was not correctly decided, making a similar argument to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurring opinion when the top judicial body formally overturned Roe v. Wade, which ended a woman’s right to an abortion, in late June.

Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” the senator argued in the clip from his podcast. “Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states. 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 that the states were adopting.”
The Texas Republican contended that the “democratic process would have continued to operate” if the Supreme Court had not ruled the way it did. “In Obergefell the Court said, ‘no, we know better than you,’ and now every state must sanction and permit gay marriage,” he said.
Cruz’s views on Obergefell are not new. He has long criticized the decision and voiced opposition to same-sex marriage. After the decision was handed down in 2015, the Republican lawmaker told NPR in an interview that states not involved in the specific lawsuit should disregard the ruling.