RIGHTS REVERSAL: Ted Cruz declares his intention to end legalized gay marriage
Republican Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Saturday that the Supreme Court landmark decision legalizing gay marriage was “overreach.” On an episode of his show The Cloakroom on Verdict+, the Senator told co-host, Liz Wheeler, “That decision was clearly wrong when it was decided.”
Ted Cruz is openly signaling that Republicans plan on going after Gay marriage next.
Protect our LGBTQ+ community. #ExpandTheCourt. Now. https://t.co/ILGpnbDWjO
— Amane Badhasso (@Amane4Congress) July 16, 2022
Obergefell v. Hodges is the landmark Supreme Court decision handed down in 2015 with a 5-4 majority vote that made it illegal for same-sex couples to be denied a marriage license in the United States and its territories, citing the US Constitution’s 14th amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.
The 14th amendment was also the deciding factor in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal and a constitutionally protected right. But today’s right-wing court majority says otherwise, having overturned Roe along party lines in a 6-3 vote in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
In a separate opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” calling them “erroneous” decisions.
Cruz agrees. Not surprising, since both he and Justice Thomas – along with Justices Gorsuch, Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Barrett – are members of The Federalist Society – an ultra-conservative legal organization that has spent decades grooming right-wing judges who will help further their agenda.
Here’s what Cruz said on his podcast:
“Obergefell, like Roe v.Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history. Marriage was always an issue that was left up to the states. We saw states before Obergefell–some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships.”
The Federalist Society has successfully installed judges in key roles around the country, all of whom have thoughts and views like Senator Cruz.
Running on a platform of states’ rights and religious liberty in 2016, Cruz was confronted by a gay Republican at a town hall, who asked the anti-LGBTQ Senator and presidential hopeful: “What would you as President do to protect me and my husband from that institutionalized discrimination?”
Cruz’s answer? “When it comes to religious liberty, religious liberty is something that protects everyone,” he said. “It is our very first amendment, very first phrase that is protected in the Bill of Rights,” Cruz continued, according to CNN.
Cruz’s bigoted Christo-fascism demonstrates just how fragile human rights are in the United States and mandates the defeat of Republican politicians nationwide in the midterm elections as the only way to ensure our society continues to enjoy the freedoms to which we have become accustomed.
Original reporting by Jason Lemon at Newsweek.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
