South Carolina General Assembly ratified H.3063, enacting a constitutional same-sex marriage ban

On March 22, 2007, the South Carolina General Assembly ratified H.3063 (A7, R10), "AN ACT TO RATIFY AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE XVII OF THE CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH CAROLINA...SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT MARRIAGE BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN IS THE ONLY LAWFUL DOMESTIC UNION THAT IS VALID OR RECOGNIZED IN THIS STATE," completing the enactment of the amendment into the state constitution as Article XVII, Section 15. The House passed the bill 92-7 on second reading January 25, 2007 and gave third-reading approval January 30; the Senate approved it on third reading and enrolled it February 27, 2007. As a constitutional ratification act, it required no governor's signature.

H.3063 was the final step in a three-stage process: the General Assembly first referred the amendment to the ballot in 2005 (HJR3133/Joint Resolution 45 of 2005), South Carolina voters approved it as Amendment 1 on November 7, 2006 by a 77.97%-22.03% margin, and H.3063 then ratified the approved amendment into the constitution. The enacted text provides that "a marriage between one man and one woman is the only lawful domestic union" the state will recognize, and bars the state and its political subdivisions from recognizing a domestic union created by another jurisdiction.

Updates

2014-11-18 — U.S. District Court ruled South Carolina could not deny recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages [4]

Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina ruled in Bradacs v. Haley (No. 3:2013cv02351) that South Carolina's refusal to recognize valid out-of-state same-sex marriages violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, issuing a permanent injunction against enforcement of that refusal. The Fourth Circuit declined to stay the ruling; South Carolina began issuing same-sex marriage licenses to in-state couples in November 2014, rendering Article XVII, Section 15 effectively inoperative before Obergefell.

2015-06-26 — Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling established a nationwide constitutional right to marry [5]

The U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644, that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages. The ruling superseded Article XVII, Section 15 of the South Carolina Constitution; it has not been enforced since but remains in the constitutional text.

2026-04-02 — South Carolina General Assembly introduced H.5501 calling for Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell [6]

South Carolina House Republicans introduced H.5501, a concurrent resolution formally rejecting Obergefell v. Hodges and urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse it and restore state authority to define marriage. The resolution references South Carolina voters' 2006 constitutional amendment and calls for the issue of marriage to be returned to individual states. A copy is to be sent to the U.S. Supreme Court.