US: Republican Senator admits same-sex marriage ‘will be the law of the land’
The Republican Senator of Utah, despite opposing marriage equality, has said it will be “the law of the land”.
Senator Orrin Hatch gave a radio interview, and despite being opposed to same-sex marriage, said if anyone did not realise it will soon be available to all US couples, they had not been paying attention to recent changes.
Speaking on KSL-Radio program The Dough Wright Show said: “Let’s face it: anybody who does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land just hasn’t been observing what’s going on.”
Going on to reiterate his opposition to recent rulings in favour of same-sex marriage, including in Utah, he defended them in that they were made in line with a wider-reaching Supreme Court ruling last year.
“How do you blame the judge for deciding a case in accordance with what the Supreme Court has already articulated?” he said.
Both judges in the Utah rulings were appointed by Hatch. He criticised Judge Robert Shelby for not staying his own ruling when he struck down the ban.
“Sooner or later gay marriage is probably going to be approved by the Supreme Court of the United States, and certainly as the people in this country move toward it, especially young people,” he continued.
“I don’t think that’s the right way to go, on the other hand, I do accept whatever the courts have to say.”
Senator Hath previously disagreed with then presidential candidate Mitt Romney on amending the Constitution to ban marriage equality.
He said that though he is not a supporter of marriage equality, he believed that individual states had a right to determine their own laws.
Same-sex marriages were briefly allowed in Utah in December, but were halted when the state appealed, putting the ban temporarily back in place.
Earlier this month, the 10th Circuit Appeals Court found that the state must recognise the marriages carried out while same-sex marriage was legal.
The US Supreme Court last year struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
