It takes a lot to amend the U.S. Constitution.
But groups that oppose gay marriage say that’s their next step if the U.S. Supreme Court decides states throughout the nation must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after hearing cases this spring from states including Ohio.
On Feb. 12, Tea Party Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and several dozen Republicans including Ohio’s Jim Jordan, who represents Marion County, Bob Gibbs, and Bob Latta introduced a proposed constitutional amendment that says:
“Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any other than the union of a man and a woman.”
In a floor speech that day to mark “National Marriage Week,” Huelskamp said he introduced the measure because “judicial activism has thrown the social and legal status of marriage into chaos.”
“The overwhelming majority of states that allow same-sex marriage do so because judges have overturned state laws and the will of the people,” Champaign County’s Jordan agreed in a statement issued to Northeast Ohio Media Group. “This amendment would restore what marriage is and always has been in the U.S.”
Same sex couples are currently allowed to marry in 37 states and the District of Columbia.
Huelskamp and other members of Congress have unsuccessfully sought constitutional amendments to block gay marriage for more than a decade. The last time the measure came up for a vote in the U.S. Senate, it failed, despite backing from conservative groups and then-President George W. Bush.
This time around, potential GOP Presidential candidates Ted Cruz, a Texas Senator, and Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s governor, have endorsed such an effort, which would require two-thirds support in both the House and Senate, and approval by three quarters of states.
U.S. Senate records indicate that 11,623 constitutional amendments were proposed between 1789 and 2014, and just 27 were adopted.
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