• An Iowa state senator introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
• The resolution is largely symbolic and unlikely to advance given the legislative session’s end.
• Similar resolutions have been introduced in other states, while some have proposed bills restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

An Iowa Republican state senator has introduced a largely symbolic measure calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to end the constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 3, introduced by Sen. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, asks the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark federal case that legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.

“Since court rulings are not laws and only legislatures elected by the people may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach,” the resolution states.

Resolutions are a formal expression of a legislative chamber’s opinion but lack the force of a bill.

And with time running out as lawmakers race to pass a budget and adjourn the session in the coming days, it’s unclear whether leadership would bring Salmon’s proposal to a floor vote.

Conservative lawmakers in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota have pushed similar symbolic measures.

Other GOP-led states, including Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, took it a step further and introduced bills to create a “covenant marriage” category that would only be for one man and one woman, NBC News reported in February.

Salmon wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Iowa legalized same-sex marriage before federal ruling

Iowa become one of the first states to legalize same-sex marriage earlier in 2009, when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in Varnum v. Brien that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the Iowa Constitution. 

Salmon’s resolution asks the nation’s high court to return the power to enforce marriage laws to the states. It looks to define marriage as “a union of one man and one woman.”

The measure says Obergefell wrongly treats the U.S. Constitution’s due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment as “a font of substantive rights, a doctrine that strays from the full meaning of the Constitution of the United States and exalts judges at the expense of the people from whom they derive their authority.”

Measure sparks concerns among LGBTQ advocates

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, the case that enshrined abortion rights for 50 years, stoked concerns among advocates that the court would revisit other rulings, including Obergefell.

Conservative Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who both dissented in Obergefell, have suggested the ruling should be reconsidered.

Iowa Democrats have criticized Salmon’s move as “anti-freedom.”

Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, D-Hiawatha, Iowa’s first out transgender state lawmaker, sounded the alarm in a post on Facebook and pointed to the court’s surprise decision overturning Roe and legislation Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law in February removing gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

“As I said on the floor earlier this year they will continue to strip rights and freedoms from their fellow Iowans until none remain,” Wichtendahl wrote. “And they will continue until they are relieved of the burden of Governing.”

Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at mjpayne@registermedia.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @marissajpayne.