Text of ID HJM 17 (2026)

LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO Sixty-eighth Legislature Second Regular Session - 2026 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 17 BY STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE A JOINT MEMORIAL 1 TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. 2 We, your Memorialists, the House of Representatives and the Sen- 3 ate of the State of Idaho assembled in the Second Regular Session of the 4 Sixty-eighth Idaho Legislature, do hereby respectfully represent that: 5 WHEREAS, the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 6 Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), is at odds with the Constitution 7 of the United States and the principles upon which the United States is es- 8 tablished; and 9 WHEREAS, liberty has long been understood as individual freedom from 10 governmental action, not as a right to a particular governmental entitle- 11 ment; and 12 WHEREAS, Obergefell invokes a definition of "liberty" that the framers 13 would not have recognized, rejecting the idea captured in the Declaration 14 of Independence that human dignity is innate, and instead suggesting that it 15 comes from the government; and 16 WHEREAS, when the framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence 17 that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain 18 unalienable Rights," they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans 19 are created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth; and 20 WHEREAS, Obergefell undermines this vision by declaring that citizens 21 must seek dignity from the state; and 22 WHEREAS, Obergefell relies on the dangerous fiction of treating the Due 23 Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as a font of 24 substantive rights, a doctrine that strays from the full meaning of the Con- 25 stitution and exalts judges at the expense of the people from whom they de- 26 rive their authority; and 27 WHEREAS, Obergefell's inversion of the original meaning of liberty 28 causes collateral damage to other aspects of our constitutional order that 29 protect liberty, including religious liberty; and 30 WHEREAS, the Supreme Court recognized in United States v. Windsor, 570 31 U.S. 744 (2013), that the definition of marriage is "an area that has long 32 been regarded as a virtually exclusive province of the States," meaning that 33 Idaho, and not the Supreme Court, has the right to regulate marriage for its 34 citizens; and 35 WHEREAS, Obergefell requires states to issue marriage licenses to same- 36 sex couples and to recognize same-sex marriages in complete contravention of 37 their own state constitutions and the will of their voters, thus undermining 38 the civil liberties of those states' residents and voters; and 39 WHEREAS, marriage as an institution has been recognized as the union of 40 one man and one woman for more than 2,000 years; and 41 WHEREAS, Obergefell arbitrarily and unjustly rejected this definition 42 of marriage, and in effect Section 28, Article III of our Idaho state con- 43 2 stitution's definition, in favor of a novel, flawed interpretation of key 1 clauses within the Constitution and our nation's legal and cultural prece- 2 dents; and 3 WHEREAS, 63% of the people of the State of Idaho and 75% of their legis- 4 lators voted to define marriage between one man and one woman in the Consti- 5 tution of the State of Idaho through the referendum of Amendment 2 in 2006; 6 and 7 WHEREAS, the Obergefell decision may have been illegitimately adjudi- 8 cated because two justices in the majority ruling, Justices Ruth Bader Gins- 9 burg and Elena Kagan, had previously officiated same-sex weddings, and thus 10 were not impartial triers of act and should have recused themselves accord- 11 ing to 28 U.S.C. 455; and 12 WHEREAS, since court rulings are not laws and only legislatures elected 13 by the people may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach; and 14 WHEREAS, residents of the State of Idaho, including our brave service- 15 men in the Idaho National Guard, have been unjustly persecuted for their be- 16 lief in the natural definition of marriage, a lifelong union of one man and 17 one woman; and 18 WHEREAS, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis was persecuted for her faith 19 in refusing to issue marriage licenses, and the Supreme Court declined to 20 uphold and defend her First Amendment rights on account of the passage of 21 Obergefell v. Hodges. 22 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the Second Regular 23 Session of the Sixty-eighth Idaho Legislature, the House of Representatives 24 and the Senate concurring therein, that the Idaho Legislature rejects the 25 Obergefell decision. 26 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Idaho Legislature calls upon the Supreme 27 Court of the United States to reverse Obergefell and restore the natural def- 28 inition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman. 29 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Idaho Legislature insists on restoring 30 the issue of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to marriage back 31 to the several states and the people. 32 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the House of Representa- 33 tives is hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this Memorial to 34 the Supreme Court of the United States. 35