Indiana Senate and House passed SJR 7, first-passage constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage recognition

On March 22, 2005, the Indiana House of Representatives voted 76-23 to pass Senate Joint Resolution 7 (SJR 7) without amendment and returned it to the Senate, completing first passage of a proposed amendment to Article 1 of the Indiana Constitution. The Indiana Senate had already passed the identical text 42-8 on February 21, 2005 (Roll Call 159); the House vote (Roll Call 266) matched it word for word. As printed, SJR 7 would define marriage as "only the union of one man and one woman" and provide that no Indiana law "may be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups" — reaching same-sex couples' access to any of the roughly 600 statutory rights and responsibilities tied to marital status under Indiana law, not merely the marriage license itself. Sen. Brandt Hershman authored the resolution, joined by fifteen Senate coauthors.

Under Article 16, Section 1 of the Indiana Constitution, a proposed amendment must be passed in identical form by two separately elected General Assemblies before going to voters for ratification; a single passage carries no legal effect on its own. SJR 7's own printed text acknowledged this, stating the amendment "has not been previously agreed to by a general assembly" and "must be agreed to by two consecutive general assemblies and ratified by a majority of the state's voters... to be effective."

Updates

2007-01-23 — Second-passage attempt stalled in House Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee [4]

When the identical text came back before the 115th General Assembly in 2007, the Indiana Senate passed SJR 7 again, but the measure stalled in the House Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee and never received a House floor vote. The required second passage did not occur and the amendment never reached a statewide ballot.

2014-09-04 — 7th Circuit struck down Indiana's same-sex marriage ban in Baskin v. Bogan [5]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled in Baskin v. Bogan, No. 14-2386, that Indiana's constitutional and statutory same-sex marriage ban violated the Equal Protection Clause, rendering further SJR 7-line amendment attempts moot.

2015-06-26 — Obergefell v. Hodges established nationwide constitutional right to same-sex marriage [6]

The U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the U.S. Constitution, superseding Indiana's prohibition.