Senate Concurrent Resolution 3 - Introduced SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 3 BY SALMON A Concurrent Resolution relating to the decision by the 1 Supreme Court of the United States in Obergefell v. 2 Hodges . 3 WHEREAS, the decision by the Supreme Court of the 4 United States in Obergefell v. Hodges , 576 U.S. 644 5 (2015), is at odds with the Constitution of the United 6 States and the principles upon which the United States 7 is established; and 8 WHEREAS, liberty has long been understood as 9 individual freedom from governmental action, not as a 10 right to a particular governmental entitlement; and 11 WHEREAS, Obergefell invokes a definition of liberty 12 that the framers would not have recognized, rejecting 13 the idea captured in the Declaration of Independence 14 that human dignity is innate, and instead suggesting 15 that liberty comes from the government; and 16 WHEREAS, when the framers proclaimed in the 17 Declaration of Independence that “all men are created 18 equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain 19 unalienable Rights”, the framers referred to a vision 20 of mankind in which all humans are created in the image 21 of God and therefore of inherent worth; and 22 WHEREAS, Obergefell undermines this vision by 23 declaring that citizens must seek dignity from the 24 state; and 25 WHEREAS, Obergefell relies on the dangerous fiction 26 of treating the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth 27 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as 28 -1- LSB 1726XS (5) 91 cm/jh 1/ 3

S.C.R. 3 a font of substantive rights, a doctrine that strays 1 from the full meaning of the Constitution of the United 2 States and exalts judges at the expense of the people 3 from whom they derive their authority; and 4 WHEREAS, Obergefell’s inversion of the original 5 meaning of liberty causes collateral damage to other 6 aspects of our constitutional order that protect 7 liberty, including religious liberty; and 8 WHEREAS, the Supreme of the United States recognized 9 in United States v. Windsor , 570 U.S. 744 (2013), that 10 the definition of marriage is “an area that has long 11 been regarded as a virtually exclusive province of 12 the States”, meaning that Iowa, and not the Supreme 13 Court of the United States, has the right to regulate 14 marriage for Iowa citizens; and 15 WHEREAS, Obergefell requires states to issue 16 marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to recognize 17 same-sex marriages in complete contravention of their 18 own state constitutions, state statutes, including 19 Iowa Code section 595.2, and the will of state voters, 20 thus undermining the civil liberties of those states’ 21 residents and voters; and 22 WHEREAS, marriage as an institution has been 23 recognized as the union of one man and one woman for 24 more than 2,000 years, and within common law, the basis 25 of the United States’ Anglo-American legal tradition, 26 for more than 800 years; and 27 WHEREAS, Obergefell arbitrarily and unjustly 28 rejected this definition of marriage in favor of a 29 novel, flawed interpretation of key clauses within the 30 -2- LSB 1726XS (5) 91 cm/jh 2/ 3

S.C.R. 3 Constitution of the United States and our nation’s 1 legal and cultural precedents; and 2 WHEREAS, since court rulings are not laws and 3 only legislatures elected by the people may pass 4 laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach; NOW, 5 THEREFORE, 6 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE, THE HOUSE OF 7 REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, That the General Assembly 8 of the State of Iowa rejects the decision of Obergefell 9 v. Hodges ; and 10 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the General Assembly of 11 the State of Iowa calls upon the Supreme Court of the 12 United States to reverse the Obergefell decision, and 13 restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of 14 one man and one woman; and 15 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the General Assembly 16 of the State of Iowa insists on restoring the issue 17 of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to 18 marriage back to the several states and the people; and 19 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this 20 concurrent resolution shall be distributed to the 21 Supreme Court of the United States. 22 -3- LSB 1726XS (5) 91 cm/jh 3/ 3