House Speaker Says Gay Marriage Bill Won't Be Heard

One of the state's leading Republicans says a proposed bill to reconsider gay marriage isn't going anywhere. The law would have faced tough legal scrutiny if passed.

House Speaker Tim Moore says the bill introduced this week won't be heard because the nation's highest court has already settled the matter.

Sponsors of the measure say the court overstepped its authority with its gay marriage ruling in 2015. That decision effectively legalized same-sex marriages across the country.

Republicans behind the bill say that decision should be left to the states. North Carolina voters approved a change to the state's constitution in 2012 that prohibited the state from recognizing same-sex marriages. The vote occurred during the primary - not the general election - when turnout was much lower.

The change, known as Amendment 1, became moot with the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage.

Efforts to defy the Supreme Court's ruling in other states have failed.

The ACLU of North Carolina criticized the dead-on-arrival bill as absurd.