Ted Cruz Wants Texas to Repeal Law Banning Gay Sex

Despite calling the Supreme Court's landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage "clearly wrong," Republican Senator Ted Cruz wants Texas to repeal its now-dormant law banning gay sex.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the conservative senator said he thinks the state should nullify its sodomy law, which has not been enforceable since the Supreme Court declared the ban unconstitutional in the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas. Despite the ruling, and multiple failed efforts by Democrats to repeal it, the law has remained on the books.

"Consenting adults should be able to do what they wish in their private sexual activity, and government has no business in their bedrooms," a Cruz spokesperson told The Dallas Morning News.

Although Texas' law is currently defunct, the Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has raised questions whether Lawerence v. Texas could be next. Both landmark cases were decided on the right to privacy.

In the decision striking down the right to an abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Court should also reconsider the precedence in Lawrence, which he called "demonstrably erroneous," and allow states to criminalize gay sex.

Texas is one of at least 11 states that have a sodomy ban in place.

Cruz's remarks came just a week after he said the Supreme Court was "clearly wrong" to legalize same-sex marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015, arguing that such policy should be left up to states to decide and should not be mandated by a federal standard.

The senator did say that despite his views, he didn't think the Court would overturn Obergefell v. Hodges because of the chaos it would cause for marriages that have already been certified.

"You've got a ton of people who have entered into gay marriages, and it would be more than a little chaotic for the Court to do something that somehow disrupted those marriages that have been entered into in accordance with the law," Cruz said on his podcast.

"I think that would be a factor that would, would counsel restraint, that the Court would be concerned about," he added. "But to be honest, I don't think this Court has any appetite for overturning any of these decisions."

While Cruz wants to see the Texas ban on gay sex repealed, other state officials have said they are "willing and able" to enforce the law.

Asked about whether he would defend Texas' sodomy ban, state Attorney General Ken Paxton told NewsNation last month that while abortion was "one of those issues" that the Supreme Court should not have waded into, "there may be more."

"My job is to defend state law, and I'll continue to do that," Paxton said. "That is my job under the Constitution and I'm certainly willing and able to do that."