A concurrent RESOLUTION

 

TO REJECT THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES OBERGEFELL DECISION AND TO CALL ON THE SUPREME COURT TO REVERSE OBERGEFELL AND RESTORE THE NATURAL LAW DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE, A UNION OF ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN AND TO INSIST ON RESTORING THE ISSUE OF MARRIAGE AND ENFORCEMENT OF ALL LAWS PERTAINING TO MARRIAGE BACK TO THE SEVERAL STATES AND THE PEOPLE.

 

Whereas, the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Obergefell v Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), is at odds with the Constitution of the United States and the principles upon which the United States is established; and

 

Whereas, liberty has long been understood as individual freedom from governmental action, not as a right to a particular governmental entitlement; and

 

Whereas, Obergefell invokes a definition of "liberty" that the Framers would not have recognized, rejecting the idea captured in the Declaration of Independence that human dignity is innate, and instead suggested that it comes from the government; and

 

Whereas, when the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth; and

 

Whereas, Obergefell undermines this vision by declaring that citizens must seek dignity from the state; and

 

Whereas, Obergefell relies on the dangerous fiction of treating the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as a font of substantive rights, a doctrine that strays from the full meaning of the Constitution and exalts judges at the expense of the people from whom they derive their authority; and

 

Whereas, Obergefell's inversion of the original meaning of liberty causes collateral damage to other aspects of our constitutional order that protect liberty, including religious liberty; and

 

Whereas, the Supreme Court recognized in United States v Windsor, 57031 U.S. 744 (2013), that the definition of marriage is "an area that has long been regarded as a virtually exclusive province of the States," meaning that South Carolina, and not the Supreme Court, has the right to regulate marriage for its citizens; and

 

Whereas, Obergefell requires states to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples and to recognize same sex marriages in complete contravention of their own state constitutions and the will of their voters, thus undermining the civil liberties of those states' residents and voters; and

 

Whereas, marriage as an institution has been recognized as the union of one man and one woman for more than two thousand years, and within common law, the basis of the United States' Anglo American legal tradition, for more than 800 years; and

 

Whereas, Obergefell arbitrarily and unjustly rejected this definition of marriage in favor of a novel, flawed interpretation of key clauses within the Constitution and our nation's legal and cultural precedents; and

 

Whereas, the Obergefell Decision was illegitimate because two of the Justices in the majority ruling, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, had previously officiated same sex weddings, and thus were not impartial triers of fact, and therefore should have recused themselves according to 28 U.S.C. Section 455; and

 

Whereas, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis was persecuted for her faith in refusing to issue same sex marriage licenses, and the Supreme Court declined to uphold and defend her First Amendment rights on account of the passage of Obergefell v Hodges; and

 

Whereas, since court rulings are not laws and only legislatures elected by the People may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach; and

 

Whereas, the people of the State of South Carolina voted to define marriage as between one man and one woman via constitutional amendment approved at the 2006 General Election by a vote of nearly 78% to 22%.  Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

 

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution,  reject the Supreme Court of the United States Obergefell decision and call on the supreme court to reverse Obergefell and restore the natural law definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman and to insist on restoring the issue of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to marriage back to the several states and the people.

 

Be it further resolved South Carolina General Assembly calls upon the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse Obergefell and restore the natural law definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman, as was recognized at the Founding.

 

Be it further resolved that the South Carolina General Assembly insists on restoring the issue of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to marriage back to the several states and the people.

 

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the Supreme Court of the United States.

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