Lawmakers in North Dakota’s state senate rejected a measure that would have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its historic 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
The resolution, which would have had no force of law behind it, failed in a lop-sided 16-31 vote after just ten minutes of debate.
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Democratic Sen. Josh Boschee said in opposition, “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.”
Republican Sen. David Clemens supported the measure, saying that while the U.S. Constitution does not mention marriage, the North Dakota Constitution recognizes marriage as between a man and a woman. Clemens said he took an oath to uphold that document.
The state House had passed the measure last month. If the resolution passed, it would have made North Dakota the first state to approve such language.
The anti-LGBTQ hate group MassResistance was behind the resolution as well as in other several other states.
