Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and 2016 presidential candidate, said Friday that the Supreme Court rulings that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional and upholding the federal subsidies in Obamacare marked a low point for the United States, calling the decisions "naked and shameless judicial activism," and declaring the past day "some of the darkest 24 hours in our history."
Cruz made the remarks in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.
He began by taking a sharp swing at the Court's ruling in King v. Burwell, in which Chief Justice John Roberts — joined by Anthony Kennedy and the Court's four liberal-leaning justices — ruled that the Affordable Care Act allowed the federal government to provide Obamacare subsidies in states that opted to use the federally-run health insurance exchange, rather than establishing their own.
"Six justices joined the Obama administration" by voting to uphold the subsidies, said Cruz. "You now have Barack Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, and six justices responsible for forcing this failed disaster of a law on millions of Americans, and simply rewriting the law in a way that is fundamentally contrary to their judicial oaths."
Cruz then pivoted to "this radical decision purporting to strike down the marriage laws of every state," in reference to Obergefell v. Hodges, and Justice Anthony Kennedy's ruling that state bans on same-sex marriage violated the Constitution.
"It has no connection to the Untied States Constitution, they are simply making it up," Cruz said. "It is lawless, and in doing so they have undermined the fundamental legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court."
Cruz told Hannity that he has introduced a constitutional amendment "that would protect the authority of state legislatures to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman," as well as "legislation stripping the federal courts of jurisdiction over legal assaults on marriage."
The Texas senator did not sound optimistic about either becoming law, however, due to what he said was his own party's unwillingness to work for their passage.
"The sad thing," Cruz told Hannity, "is there aren't a whole lot of Republicans in Congress willing to stand and fight on either one of those."