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South Carolina Legislature completed passage of HJR3133, a constitutional same-sex marriage ban, referring it to voters

The South Carolina House passed H.3133 (A45, R51) 96-3 on March 1, 2005, proposing a constitutional amendment limiting lawful domestic unions to one man and one woman; the Senate amended and passed it 2005-04-14, and the House concurred in the Senate amendment and enrolled the bill on 2005-04-26, completing the General Assembly's referral of the amendment to voters. The measure was ratified 2005-04-28 without need for the governor's signature, and voters approved the resulting Amendment 1 on November 7, 2006.

Jurisdiction
South Carolina
Location
Columbia, South Carolina

Abuses documented

Actors

  • South Carolina House of Representatives
  • South Carolina Senate

On April 26, 2005, the South Carolina House of Representatives concurred with Senate amendments to H.3133 (A45, R51) and enrolled the bill (HJ-67), completing the General Assembly's bicameral referral of the constitutional amendment to the ballot. The House had initially passed H.3133 96-3 on March 1, 2005, with Rep. Greg Delleney as lead sponsor, proposing to add Section 15 to Article XVII of the state constitution barring the state and its political subdivisions from creating or recognizing any domestic union other than a marriage between one man and one woman, including unions created by other jurisdictions.

The Senate amended and passed the measure on April 14, 2005, and returned it to the House with amendments. The joint resolution was formally ratified on April 28, 2005; as a constitutional amendment referral it was not subject to the governor's veto and required no signature.

This entry records the legislature's 2005 act of referring the marriage-restriction amendment to the ballot, distinct from the General Assembly's later 2007 act (H.3063) formally ratifying the amendment's incorporation into the constitution following voter approval.

Updates

2006-11-07 — South Carolina voters approved Amendment 1 banning same-sex marriage [2]

Voters approved the measure as Amendment 1 to the South Carolina Constitution on November 7, 2006, by a margin of 77.97% to 22.03%.

2015-06-26 — Obergefell v. Hodges superseded Amendment 1 [4]

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 South Carolina's Amendment 1.

Why we recorded this

The South Carolina General Assembly completed legislative passage of a constitutional amendment declaring marriage between one man and one woman the only lawful domestic union the state would recognize, using the legislature's referral power to place a targeted restriction on same-sex couples' rights before the electorate. Entrenching a discriminatory marriage classification into the state constitution is a legislative act singling out a class of people for exclusion from equal recognition under the law.

Sources

  1. H.3133 (A45, R51) bill history and ratified text — South Carolina General Assembly primary accessed July 20, 2026
  2. South Carolina Amendment 1, the Marriage Act (2006) — Ballotpedia secondary accessed July 20, 2026
  3. 2006 South Carolina Amendment 1 — Wikipedia secondary accessed July 20, 2026
  4. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015) — Justia U.S. Supreme Court primary accessed July 20, 2026

See also