A state legislative committee has advanced a resolution asking that the power to regulate marriage be returned to the states.
Since 1793, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined President George Washington’s request for legal guidance on foreign relations, the justices have refrained from weighing in outside the bounds of formal lawsuits.
Idaho lawmakers, however, are challenging that tradition. This week, a State House committee overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The resolution calls for returning the authority to regulate marriage to individual states.
For the resolution to proceed, it would need approval from the full Idaho House and Senate, both of which are Republican-controlled.
“Since court rulings are not laws and only legislatures elected by the people may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach,” the resolution states. It further declares: “The Idaho Legislature 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.’’
MassResistance, a Massachusetts-based organization, has been a driving force behind the resolution, according to The Idaho Statesman. The group, which identifies as a “pro-family activist organization,” originated during the battle over marriage equality in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage was legalized following a 2003 ruling by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
During the Idaho hearing, Representative Heather Scott, a Republican and the measure’s sponsor, emphasized the importance of asserting states’ rights.
“If we start down this road where the federal government or the judiciary decides that they’re going to create rights for us, then they can take rights away,” she argued.
On Wednesday, several dozen demonstrators crowded into the committee room but walked out together as Ms. Scott introduced the proposal, according to local news reports.
“What is the purpose of this exercise?” asked Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, Idaho director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, who lives with her wife near Boise. “It really feels like a value statement being sent to the LGBTQ community in Idaho that they are not welcome.’’
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, legal experts have warned that the ruling on same-sex marriage could also be at risk. Two of the court’s conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, have suggested revisiting the landmark decision.
However, legal scholars expressed skepticism about Idaho’s strategy of submitting a letter of request rather than pursuing an active legal case, noting it was unlikely to influence the court.
“This is just theater,” said Tobias Wolff, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “I will leave it to others to judge what impact it might have as a political matter, but the Supreme Court will no more respond to a letter from the Idaho Legislature than they would a letter from me.”
Supporters of the resolution, however, argued that their efforts reflect the views of many Idaho residents. In 2006, voters in the state approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
