Texas Sen. Ted Cruz(R) criticized the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodgesruling that federally legalized same-sex marriage on Saturday, calling it “clearly wrong.”
“Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz said on a YouTube teaser for his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. “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 way the Constitution set up for you to advance that position is convince your fellow citizens, that if you succeeded in convincing your fellow citizens, then your state would change the laws to reflect those views. In Obergefell, the court said, ‘No, we know better than you guys do, and now every state must, must sanction and permit gay marriage,” he continued, adding that the decision was an “overreach” by the court.
Though Cruz believes it should be left to the states to decide gay marriage laws, he also allowed that the law would be complicated to overturn at this point.
“You’ve got a ton of people who have entered into gay marriages and it would be more than a little chaotic for the court to do something that somehow disrupted those marriages,” he said.
Cruz’s comments come after conservative Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the court reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges as the court overturned Roe v. Wade which federally protected the right to an abortion late last month.
The Texas senator added that he did not think the court would actually overturn Obergefell.
