Since 1793, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined a request by President George Washington to offer legal guidance on foreign relations, the court’s justices have steered away from weighing in outside the context of a formal lawsuit.
That has not deterred lawmakers in Idaho, however. This week, a State House committee overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to undo Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 decision that gave same-sex couples the right to marry, and to hand the power to regulate marriage back to the states.
The resolution would still need approval by the full House and the Idaho Senate before any request could be sent to the Supreme Court. Both chambers in Idaho are controlled by Republicans.
“Since court rulings are not laws and only legislatures elected by the people may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach,” the resolution reads. It continues: “The Idaho Legislature calls upon the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse Obergefell and restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.’’
An organization based in Massachusetts called MassResistance has pressed for the resolution, The Idaho Statesman reported. The group describes itself as a “pro-family activist organization” and traces its roots to marriage equality battles in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage became legal as a result of a 2003 decision by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
At the hearing in Idaho, the sponsor of the measure, Representative Heather Scott, a Republican, said it was important to make a statement about states’ rights.
“If we start down this road where the federal government or the judiciary decides that they’re going to create rights for us, then they can take rights away,” she said.
Several dozen demonstrators filled the committee room on Wednesday before walking out together as Ms. Scott introduced the proposal, local news reports said.
“What is the purpose of this exercise?” said Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, the Idaho director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, who lives with her wife not far from Boise. “It really feels like a value statement being sent to the L.G.B.T.Q. community in Idaho that they are not welcome.’’
Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, legal scholars have said that the same-sex marriage ruling may also be vulnerable. Two of the court’s conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, have suggested that it should be reconsidered.
Still, legal scholars said that Idaho’s approach — with a letter of request, instead of an active legal suit — seemed unlikely to carry weight.
“This is just theater,’’ said Tobias Wolff, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “I will leave it to others to judge what impact it might have as a political matter, but the Supreme Court will no more respond to a letter from the Idaho Legislature than they would a letter from me.’’
But advocates for the resolution said their efforts reflected the views of many residents of their state. In 2006, Idaho voters passed an amendment to the State Constitution limiting marriage to between men and women.
