COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Two Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have introduced a bill that would interpose against June’s same-sex “marriage” ruling and defend the state’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as being the union of one man and one woman.
Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Woodruff, and Rep. Mike Burns, R-Taylors, recently filed Bill 4513 in the General Assembly, otherwise known as the South Carolina Natural Marriage Defense Act.
“[I]n Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015), five justices of the United States Supreme Court issued a lawless opinion with no basis in American law or history, purporting to overturn natural marriage and find a ‘right’ to same-sex ‘marriage’ in the United States Constitution and the fourteenth amendment,” it reads in part.
The bill quotes remarks from the dissenting justices in the case, and notes that “natural marriage has been recognized and regulated by the states since the founding of America,” and that “English common law was the source of the early American common law.”
The bill then quotes from Sir William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Common Law were used by attorneys and the courts throughout early America. Blackstone taught that a man’s rights come from God, and that all law must be based on God’s law.
“[The] law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in any obligation to any other,” Blackstone stated. “It is binding over all the globe in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this.”
The Blackstone Institute outlines that “[i]t was only in the mid-Twentieth Century that American law, being re-written by the U. S. Supreme Court, repudiated Blackstone.”
Consequently, Woodruff and Burns declare in Bill 4513 that not all orders are lawful, and unlawful orders should be resisted.
“It is the policy of the State of South Carolina to defend natural marriage as recognized by the people of this State in the Constitution and laws of the State of South Carolina, consistent with natural law and the United States Constitution,” the bill declares. “Natural marriage between one man and one woman as recognized by the people of this State remains the law in South Carolina, regardless of any court decision to the contrary.”
“A court decision purporting to strike down natural marriage, including Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584 (2015), is unauthoritative, void, and of no effect,” it says.
Bill 4513 also requires the state attorney general to defend South Carolina law in the event of a lawsuit surrounding the institution of marriage.
Chumley said that he believes officials in South Carolina must uphold the will of the people and the law of God.
“Their lifestyle or what they do is their call. This is not against gay people. This is saying that South Carolina should not sanction or ordain something we believe is wrong,” he told reporters. “I represent the people, and the people have shown several times that they are opposed to this, and are in favor of traditional marriage.”
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