Ted Cruz equivocates after saying 2015 marriage equality ruling was 'clearly wrong'

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It has been just a few days since Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that the Supreme Court was "clearly wrong" when it legalized marriage equality in 2015.

"I think that decision was clearly wrong when it was decided," Cruz said on his podcast Verdict With Ted Cruz. "It was the court overreaching. Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history. Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states. We saw states before Obergefell, some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards that the states were adopting."

There is an overarching concern that now that the Supreme Court has eliminated the national right to privacy over reproductive freedom that marriage equality is next. The concerns are well supported as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion eliminating Roe that they should reconsider their rulings on same-sex marriage along with privacy around contraception.

But when Raw Story asked Cruz about the House bill that would codify marriage and whether the Supreme Court's ruling on Obergefell should stand, Cruz said that it was all a political stunt by Democrats.

"I think it was a political gesture because the Supreme Court made it explicit and unequivocally clear that it has no intention of revisiting the Obergefell decision," said Cruz. "And, so, that's Democrats playing election-year politics and not responding to the real challenges to the country."

The law would officially put marriage equality into the statutes by eliminating the Defense of Marriage Act laws passed in 1996.

"The way the Constitution set up for you to advance that position is convince your fellow citizens, that if you succeeded in convincing your fellow citizens, then your state would change the laws to reflect those views," Cruz said on his podcast. "In Obergefell, the court said, 'No, we know better than you guys do, and now every state must, must sanction and permit gay marriage.'"

Yet, when Congress did move to eliminate the Defense of Marriage Act, Cruz called it an election-year ploy.

Cruz's Senate office pointed to a segment of the podcast where the senator acknowledge that since the freedom to marry was granted in 2015 that taking it away could cause problems.

"You've got a ton of people who have entered into gay marriages and it would be more than a little chaotic for the court to do something that somehow disrupted those marriages that have been entered into in accordance with the law," Cruz said. "I think that would be a factor that would, would counsel restraint, that the court would be concerned about. But to be honest, I don't think this Court has any appetite for overturning any of these decisions."

With additional reporting from Matt Laslo.

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