By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
The North Dakota Senate has rejected a resolution asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality.
The resolution failed to pass the state Senate in a 16-31 vote after only ten minutes of debate.
The North Dakota Senate has rejected a resolution asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality.
The state Senate voted Thursday to reject a resolution that would have urged the nation's highest court to reconsider its 2015 ruling establishing marriage equality, Obergefell v. Hodges. The resolution, which was approved by the state House of Representatives, failed to pass the Senate in a 16-31 vote after only ten minutes of debate.
“I understand that this puts us all in a tough spot, but I ask you to think about who’s put in the toughest position with this resolution: the people of North Dakota who are the subject of the resolution ... the gay and lesbian North Dakotans who did not ask to be the subject of this conversation, but the conversation was brought to us," Democratic Sen. Josh Boschee said, via The Associated Press.
When the conservative Supreme Court majority created by Donald Trump overturned the national right to abortion in 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion at the time that the court should also revisit and overrule decisions that prevent state restrictions on contraception, marriage equality, sodomy, and other private consensual sex acts, calling the rulings "demonstrably erroneous."
North Dakota voters did approve a constitutional amendment in 2004 defining marriage as a "union of a man and a woman," which was invalidated by the 2015 ruling. If the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell, marriage equality would still be protected nationally by the Respect for Marriage Act, which passed in 2022 and was signed by President Joe Biden that December.
North Dakota was one out of nine states that have recently introduced resolutions trying to challenge marriage equality, including Idaho, where the House of Representatives approved such a measure. Northwestern LGBTQ+ advocacy group Pride Foundation CEO Katie Carter previously told The Advocate that "the resolution, while non-binding, amounts to an amplified cultural attack against our community — and a foreshadowing of what’s to come for LGBTQ+ people across the United States."
