“When it comes to the interpretation of the Constitution — the ‘great charter of our liberties,’ which was ‘meant to endure through the long lapse of the ages,’ — we place a high value on having the matter ‘settled right.’ When one of our constitutional decisions goes astray, the country is usually stuck with the bad decision unless we correct our own mistake.” — Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)

The tides are turning against the radical woke agenda in America. This became even more apparent in June, when the US Supreme Court handed down ruling after ruling in conservatives’ favor. The ark is turning – and it began with the landmark Tennessee case Skrmetti v. United States.

On June 18, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that Tennessee’s “Help Not Harm” law (SB1), which protects minors from radical transgender surgeries and drugs, does not violate the Constitution and will be allowed to stand. President Biden’s Department of Justice argued the statute violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by treating boys and girls differently, but Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that “The law does not prohibit conduct for one sex that it permits for the other,” and thus it is not unconstitutional.

With this incredible precedent established, conservatives now turn their eyes toward Obergefell v. Hodges, the disastrous 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex “marriage.” This decision has haunted America for a decade, harming countless children and doing untold damage to our society. It’s time for the Court to rethink Obergefell.

Note that the Court weighed the Skrmetti decision based on SB1’s alleged violation of the 14th Amendment – they bypassed the “gender issue” entirely and declined to create a new constitutionally-protected category for “transgender status,” which would have subsequently created an artificial violation of the 14th Amendment. This process – of dealing wholly with the constitutional issue at hand and not with the cultural issue – will be of key importance for Obergefell as well as the Court’s upcoming cases regarding men in women’s sports. These critical cases must be based on the foundational principles of the Constitution and what the founders intended – not on what is currently deemed acceptable by some in our society. 

“Obergefell’s purported creation of a substantive federal right to same-sex ‘marriage’ was grounded in the notion that in addition to rights explicitly stated in the Constitution, there are others — heretofore unknown to the Republic — that lurk in the shadows and include ‘intimate choices that define personal identity and beliefs,’” Constitutional Attorney Daniel Schmid wrote. “Simply put, Obergefell was created out of thin air with no foundation or constitutional precedent.” (emphasis added)

With a conservative majority in the Court, we feel confident that a reconsideration of same-sex marriage is imminent and will be considered with the appropriate constitutional weight. Luckily, we already know the viewpoint of Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in a dissenting opinion that Obergefell’s creation of same-sex “marriage” was inconsistent with “the meaning of marriage that has persisted in every culture throughout human history.” He noted that “marriage has existed for millennia and across civilizations [and] [f]or all those millennia, across all those civilizations, marriage referred to only one relationship: the union of a man and a woman.”

Those on the Left may wonder why conservatives care so much about “gay marriage.” It’s simple. The Obergefell ruling is unconstitutional, it attempted to redefine a sacred institution created by God, and worst of all, it continues to harm children by robbing them of their natural right to their biological mother and father.

“Children need, deserve, want, and have a right to their mother and father,” children’s rights activist Katy Faust wrote. “That reality stands regardless of what five Supreme Court justices decree. The question is whether our definition of marriage will reflect that truth—or continue to victimize children by denying it.”

The sun is setting on Obergefell’s time as the law of the land. The ark is turning – and it began with Tennessee’s Skrmetti victory. All the work FACT and our allies around the nation are doing is making a tangible difference, and we hope you will continue supporting our mission as we fight the woke agenda culturally, politically, and legally.