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Alabama Legislature passed SB109, referring same-sex marriage constitutional ban to voters

On March 10, 2005, the Alabama Senate voted 30-0 to concur in House amendments to SB109, completing legislative passage of the "Sanctity of Marriage Amendment" two days after the House passed the amended bill 85-7 on March 8, 2005. The joint resolution-style act, sponsored by Sen. Hinton Mitchem, proposed a state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage licenses and denying recognition to any same-sex marriage, civil union, or common-law marriage formed under any jurisdiction's law, and referred the measure directly to the next statewide ballot.

Jurisdiction
Alabama
Location
Montgomery, Alabama

Abuses documented

Actors

  • Alabama Senate
  • Alabama House of Representatives
  • Hinton Mitchem (Alabama State Senator, sponsor)

On March 10, 2005, the Alabama Senate voted 30-0 to concur in House amendments to SB109, completing the Legislature's passage of Act 2005-35, the "Sanctity of Marriage Amendment," and referring it to Alabama voters. The Senate had originally passed SB109 on February 8, 2005; the House passed the bill with an amendment 85-7 on March 8, 2005; and the Senate's concurrence two days later, on March 10, finalized bicameral passage. Sponsored by state Sen. Hinton Mitchem, a Democrat, the measure proposes adding language to Article I of the Alabama Constitution declaring marriage "inherently a unique relationship between a man and a woman," barring the issuance of a marriage license to same-sex couples, and denying recognition to any same-sex marriage, civil union, or common-law marriage formed under any jurisdiction's law — reaching beyond marriage licenses to bar Vermont-style civil unions as well.

The referral followed a wave of similar state constitutional amendments filed in reaction to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's 2003 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in that state; by March 2005, Alabama was one of several states moving amendments toward their ballots that year. As a legislatively referred constitutional amendment, SB109/Act 2005-35 required voter ratification to take effect. The March 10, 2005 legislative referral recorded here is the act of placing the discriminatory measure before voters.

Updates

2006-06-06 — Alabama voters ratified the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment as Constitutional Amendment 774 by 81 percent [4]

At the June 6, 2006 primary election, Alabama voters approved Act 2005-35 as Constitutional Amendment 774 with roughly 81 percent support, giving the same-sex marriage ban and civil-union prohibition legal effect in the Alabama Constitution.

2015-06-26 — Obergefell v. Hodges rendered Alabama's Constitutional Amendment 774 unenforceable [5]

The U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment, rendering Alabama's Amendment 774 unenforceable.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection under the law is a core civic guarantee, and constitutional referenda are not exempt from it. Here, a state legislature voted to place a permanent ban on same-sex marriage before voters, using the amendment process to single out a group of Alabamians for exclusion from a legal institution based on sexual orientation, and to foreclose civil unions and common-law recognition as well. This archive records the referral vote itself as the discriminatory act, distinct from whether the ban ultimately took effect, because a legislature's decision to put a protected class's rights to a majority vote is itself an erosion of the norm that fundamental rights should not depend on referenda.

Sources

  1. SB109 Enrolled Act — Alabama Legislature, 2005 Regular Session — Alabama Legislature (ALISON) primary accessed July 20, 2026
  2. Alabama legislature sends marriage amendment to voters — Baptist Press investigative accessed July 20, 2026
  3. 2006 Alabama Amendment 774 — Wikipedia secondary accessed July 20, 2026
  4. Alabama Constitutional Amendment 774, Sanctity of Marriage Amendment (June 2006) — Ballotpedia secondary accessed July 20, 2026
  5. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015) — Justia U.S. Supreme Court primary accessed July 26, 2026

See also