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Virginia General Assembly gave final passage to constitutional amendment banning recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions

On March 7, 2006, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 76-22 to give final approval to SJ92, completing the second of two required successive-session passages of a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman and barring recognition of any other union, partnership, or legal status carrying marriage-like rights or obligations. The measure, chief-patroned by Senator Stephen D. Newman, was sent to Virginia voters, who ratified it in November 2006 as the Marshall-Newman Amendment.

Jurisdiction
Virginia
Location
Richmond, Virginia

Abuses documented

Actors

On March 7, 2006, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 76-22 (after an earlier procedural vote of 78-19-1) to give final passage to SJ92, completing the second of two required successive-session approvals of a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Virginia. The amendment provides that "only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by" the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions, and separately bars the Commonwealth from creating or recognizing any other "union, partnership, or other legal status" to which are assigned "the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage." SJ92 was chief-patroned by Senator Stephen D. Newman.

Under Virginia's constitutional-amendment process, a proposed amendment must pass in identical form in two successive General Assemblies, separated by an intervening election, before it can go before voters. The Senate and House had already approved the amendment in the prior legislative session; the March 7, 2006 House vote was the second and final legislative passage required to place the measure on the ballot. Virginia voters ratified the amendment that November, as the Marshall-Newman Amendment, writing the marriage and civil-union recognition ban into the state constitution.

The amendment's broad "any other legal status" clause drew concern beyond its marriage provision, as advocates warned it could jeopardize private contractual arrangements such as medical powers of attorney and cohabitation agreements between unmarried couples, including opposite-sex couples, not just same-sex couples seeking marriage recognition.

Updates

2014-07-28 — Fourth Circuit struck down Marshall-Newman Amendment [2]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in Bostic v. Schaefer, No. 14-1167, that Virginia's Marshall-Newman Amendment violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, striking down the state's same-sex marriage ban.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection under state constitutional law means the government does not write differential treatment of a group into its founding charter based on who they are. Virginia's General Assembly gave final passage to a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman and barring the Commonwealth from recognizing any other union carrying marriage-like rights or obligations, placing that exclusion on the November 2006 ballot. This entrenches discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples at the constitutional level, making the denial of recognition far harder to reverse than an ordinary statute.

Sources

  1. LIS > Bill Tracking > SJ92 - Constitutional amendment (second resolution); marriage — Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS), Division of Legislative Automated Systems primary accessed July 20, 2026
  2. Bostic v. Schaefer, No. 14-1167 (4th Cir. 2014) — CourtListener / U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary accessed July 20, 2026

See also