Love who you want to love, marry who you want to marry. ‘Nuff said.
At its simplest, passing Colorado Amendment J would revoke a sentence currently in the Colorado Constitution saying “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.” Even though Amendment J would amend the Constitution, it’s only removing language, so it will only take a simple majority of voters to pass the amendment.
It’s commonly said that the sentence being proposed for removal is “technically unenforceable.” That’s because in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples. According to the National Constitution Center: “Here, the Court held that states must allow and recognize same-sex marriages under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
In short, the Obergefell ruling nullified the power of that sentence in Colorado’s Constitution. A district court judge had also ruled in 2014 that Colorado’s language was unconstitutional, as with Obergefell due to the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Colorado General Assembly referred Amendment J to the 2024 ballot by passing Senate Concurrent Resolution 24-003. The resolution passed by wide margins in both legislative chambers – 29-5 in the Senate with all 5 “no” votes coming from Republicans, and 46-14 in the House with all “no” votes except one coming from Democrats.
Richard’s Take
This is an easy “yes” vote for me, and I don’t feel a need to write a lot about Amendment J here. By removing the one sentence from the Colorado Constitution, same-sex marriages would not become technically unconstitutional in Colorado if for some reason the U.S. Supreme Court decided to reverse Obergefell, and it would be wise to at least accept the possibility that today’s conservative Supreme Court majority might consider such a move. Passing Amendment J would be a smart and simple move to rectify one difference between our state Constitution and not just federal law, but perhaps more importantly, reality in practice.
I expect Amendment J to pass easily, and that will be partially because I believe a solid majority of Coloradans accept same-sex marriages, or have come to accept them over time. Colorado passed a civil unions bill in 2013, one year after Republican leadership blocked a similar bill in the House – and Republicans lost their House majority in the election later that year, thanks in part to outrage over this move. They were on the wrong side of history then, and the nation has lived with legal same-sex marriages since 2015.
It’s not always easy, but we’re in a situation today where people get to love who they want to love, and marry who they want to marry. There’s no need whatsoever to go back.
