Text of MS SC 542 (2025)

MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE 2025 Regular Session To: Rules By: Senator(s) Chism Senate Concurrent Resolution 542 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION CALLING UPON THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES TO OVERTURN THE OBERGEFELL V. HODGES DECISION, AND TO RESTORE THE RIGHTS OF THE STATE TO PRESCRIBE THE CONDITIONS FOR MARRIAGE AND THE DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE. WHEREAS, the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), is at odds with the Constitution of the United States and the principles upon which the United States is established; and WHEREAS, liberty has long been understood as individual freedom from governmental action, not as a right to a particular governmental entitlement; and WHEREAS, Obergefell invokes a definition of "liberty" that the Framers would not have recognized, rejecting the idea memorialized in the Declaration of Independence that human dignity is innate; and WHEREAS, when the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are created in the image of God and are, therefore, of inherent worth; and WHEREAS, Obergefell undermines this vision by declaring that citizens must seek their identity and self-worth from the government and positive law pronouncements; and WHEREAS, Obergefell relies on the dangerous fiction of treating the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as a font of substantive rights, a doctrine that strays from the proper meaning of the Constitution and exalts judges at the expense of the people from whom judges derive their authority; and WHEREAS, Obergefell's inversion of the original meaning of liberty causes collateral damage to other aspects of our constitutional order that protect liberty, including religious liberty; and WHEREAS, the Supreme Court recognized in United States v. Windsor, 57031 U.S. 744 (2013), that the definition of marriage is "an area that has long been regarded as a virtually exclusive province of the states," meaning that the State of Mississippi, and not the Supreme Court, has the right to regulate marriage for its citizens; and WHEREAS, Obergefell requires states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to recognize same-sex marriages in complete contravention of their own state constitutions and the will of their voters, thus undermining the civil liberties and democratic institutions of those states' residents and voters; and WHEREAS, marriage as an institution has been recognized as the union of one man and one woman for more than 2,000 years, and within common law, the basis of the United States' Anglo-American legal tradition, for more than 800 years; and WHEREAS, the voters of the State of Mississippi defined marriage as the exclusive union of one man and one woman in a 2004 statewide initiative that passed with the support of 86% of voters; and WHEREAS, Obergefell arbitrarily and unjustly rejected this Biblical, ancient and common law definition of marriage in favor of a novel, flawed and inaccurate interpretation of the Constitution; and WHEREAS, the Obergefell decision was illegitimate because two of the justices in the majority ruling, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, had previously officiated same-sex weddings, and thus were not impartial triers of fact, and therefore should have recused themselves according to 28 U.S. Code § 455; and WHEREAS, since court rulings are not laws and only Legislatures elected by the people may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach: NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That the Legislature rejects the Obergefell decision. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring therein, calls upon the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse the Obergefell decision, to restore the natural and common law definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring therein, insists on restoring the issue of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to marriage to the several states and to the people. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Secretary of the Senate is hereby authorized and directed to forward a certified copy of this resolution to the Supreme Court of the United States. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be furnished to the Capitol Press Corps.