Tennessee House Passes Measure Opposing Supreme Court's Gay Marriage Decision

Veronica Neffinger | iBelieve Contributor | Updated: Mar 14, 2016

Tennessee House Passes Measure Opposing Supreme Court's Gay Marriage Decision

The Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a measure that pushes back against the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision.

LifeSiteNews.com reports that the measure says that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges wrongly usurped power from the states in making a federal law which some states were not in favor of.

The motion states, “BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE CONCURRING, that this body expresses its disagreement with the constitutional analysis in Obergefell v. Hodges and the judicial imposition of a marriage license law that is contrary to the express will of this body and the vote of the people of Tennessee.”

“This lawsuit does not deny that the Supreme Court has the power of judicial review,” said former state senator David Fowler.  Rather, he said, the lawsuit asks, “How does anyone, regardless of the sexes of the parties, get a valid marriage license pursuant to an invalid law?" 

Support for same-sex marriage in Tennessee is only at 29 percent, according to a poll released by Middle Tennessee State University. In addition, 57 percent of Tennessee residents (including 44 percent of Democrats) strongly oppose it.

Since the majority of Tennesseans oppose the Supreme Court’s decision, the House passed the recent measure to call it into question.

“I wrote this resolution because the legislature is without standing to sue the court over their decree that purported to make new law in Tennessee,” said Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Joliet.

The measure will now go to the Senate Judiciary Committee for review.

Publication date: March 14, 2016



Tennessee House Passes Measure Opposing Supreme Court's Gay Marriage Decision