BOISE, ID – The Idaho House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 landmark ruling that legalized gay marriage nationwide.
Post Falls Republican Rep. Tony Wisniewski sponsored House Joint Memorial 17, which calls on the nation’s high court to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges and “restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.”
The resolution is a declaration of the Legislature’s desire, but does not affect the law.
Wisniewski said the nearly 11-year-old ruling has “ultimately resulted in a violation of religious rights of individuals and companies.”
Idaho’s Constitution in 2006 was amended to declare marriage between one man and one woman, but in 2014, a federal judge ruled the amendment was unconstitutional, legalizing gay marriage in Idaho a year before it was legalized nationwide.
The U.S. Supreme Court in November had an opportunity to revisit the Obergefell decision amid a challenge to it from former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, but the court declined to take up the case.
House members on Tuesday approved the resolution 44-26 after limited debate. HJM 17 will go to the Senate for consideration.
House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said the right to marriage has long been upheld by courts, and the resolution was “at best, a waste of time and money.”
“But I think it is much worse than that,” Rubel said. “It is, affirmatively, very harmful and hurtful to Idahoans. It’s harmful to the thousands of same-sex married couples in Idaho, many of whom have been married for 10 years or more.”
Grayson Stone, who has been serving as a long-term substitute for Twin Falls Republican Rep. Don Hall after Hall stepped down due to health issues, said that his marriage to his wife “is completely inseparable.”
He argued it was inconsistent to apply parts of the Bible as a reason to overturn the ruling.
“If we’re going to follow one verse of the Scripture, we should follow the other and look at Leviticus,” Stone said. “What’s it tell us in Leviticus? Thou shalt not shave thy head or thy beard. I just don’t understand why we have to apply the Bible to specific aspects of our life, but not all of it. So I will be voting against this bill.”
The House last year approved a very similar memorial in a 46-24 vote, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. That memorial did not advance in the Senate.
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