Walker calls for Constitutional amendment to let states define marriage

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, seizing the moment after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, called Friday for a Constitutional amendment that would allow the states to decide whether gay marriage should be legal.

Walker’s call came shortly after the high court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples could marry across the country, overturning a number of state same-sex marriage bans.


The ruling was “a grave mistake,” the Republican governor said, touting his support for amending his state’s constitution “to protect the institution of marriage from exactly this type of judicial activism.”

“As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reaffirm the ability of the states to continue to define marriage,” Walker said in the statement.

Walker’s statement put him directly at odds with one potential 2016 rival, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said he didn’t support pursuing a constitutional amendment.

“[G]iven the quickly changing tide of public opinion on this issue, I do not believe that any attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution could possibly gain the support of three-fourths of the states or a supermajority in the U.S. Congress,” Graham said in his statement. “Rather than pursuing a divisive effort that would be doomed to fail, I am committing myself to ensuring the protection of religious liberties of all Americans.”

Such an amendment would face steep odds on Capitol Hill.

Correction: The original version of this story said, wrongly, that Walker was calling for a Constitutional amendment “defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.”