Cruz introduces bill to leave marriage to the states

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is calling on his colleagues to pass a bill that would make same sex marriage a state issue.

Cruz, along with 11 other Republican senators, re-introduced the State Marriage Defense Act on Tuesday, which aims to allow states to adopt their own definitions of marriage and would block the federal government from applying its own definition of marriage onto states.


“Even though the Supreme Court made clear in United States v. Windsor that the federal government should defer to state ‘choices about who may be married,’ the Obama Administration has disregarded state marriage laws enacted by democratically-elected legislatures to uphold traditional marriage,” Cruz said in a press release.

He added, “I support traditional marriage and we should reject attempts by the Obama Administration to force same-sex marriage on all 50 states. The State Marriage Defense Act helps safeguard the ability of states to preserve traditional marriage for their citizens.”

The bill would force federal government to rely on state law to determine whether couples are considered to be married for the purposes for federal law.

Last year, Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the same bill but it was not brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

The proposed act comes about one month after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case in 2015 that will decide whether the U.S. Constitution guarantees all Americans the right to enter into same-sex marriage. On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to halt a federal ruling that required officials in Alabama to recognize same-sex marriage rights.

Cruz’s effort is joined by Senators Lee, John Boozman (R-Ark.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), James Inhofe (R-Okla). James Lankford (R-Okla.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and David Vitter (R-La.) Congressman Randy Weber (R-Texas).

Seven of the co-sponsors — Boozman, Crapo, Inhofe, Roberts, Sessions, Shelby and Vitter — were in Congress in 2006 and supported legislation at the time to create a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.