PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey said he is not interested in using the Supreme Court ruling overturning its own precedent on the right to abortion as a reason to revisit the legality of same-sex marriage in Arizona.
The Republican governor acknowledged that at least one justice suggested there are parallels between the Supreme Court preempting the right of states to regulate or outlaw abortion, and rulings over the years that overruled other laws about personal decisions.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion on the abortion ruling late last month, said the court’s decision concluding there is no “due process’’ protection for the right of abortion should be used to revisit not only its 2015 ruling on same-sex marriage but also its 2003 ruling overturning state sodomy laws and its 1965 decision saying married couples have the right to use contraception.
“Thomas said one thing,’’ Ducey told Capitol Media Services on Wednesday when asked if the question of same-sex marriage, like the question of abortion, should be left to the states.
But he pointed out that Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority ruling, spelled out that the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and its constitutional right of abortion did not affect those other rulings.
“So the Supreme Court has spoken,’’ Ducey said. “I respect the process. And I believe in federalism. Federalism would say that there’s a mix between national government, the federal government, and what’s left to the states.”
Ducey said that means questions like the right of same-sex marriage are not necessarily left to each state.
He acknowledged that the justices, in their abortion decision, said it was wrong of the court to take the abortion question away from the states 49 years ago.
“That issue comes back to the states,’’ Ducey continued, a conclusion he urged the justices to reach when he signed on a legal brief asking the court to overturn Roe v. Wade. “And now it’s left to the people.’’
But it was the decision of the people of Arizona in 2008, by a vote of 56%-44%, to approve a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to “one man and one woman.’’
That was the law in Arizona until federal judges — and, ultimately, the Supreme Court in 2015 — held the U.S. Constitution requires states to license a marriage between two people of the same sex.
“I want to separate these issues out,’’ Ducey said Wednesday.
He said that the Supreme Court, in overturning Roe, was dealing with something different, which “has been battled nationally for 50 years.’’
