The House of Representatives plans to vote Tuesday on nationalizing same-sex marriage and strengthening other marriage equality protections, in direct response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. that Overturning longstanding federal abortion rights.
The Respect the Marriage Act will determine that a marriage is valid under federal law if it is legal in the state where it was performed. The measure would explicitly prohibit anyone from denying “full faith and credit” to an out-of-state marriage based on sex, race, ethnicity or national origin, regardless of law. of any country. It would grant the US attorney general the power to enforce that rule through civil action.
It would also completely repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, the 1996 act signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The Supreme Court withdrew DOMA through a 2013 ruling in the United States v. Windsor. Two years later, the court ruled in Obergefell v Hodges that the Constitution guaranteed the right to same-sex marriage. Despite being smeared, DOMA is still technically a law, and the House is now aiming to remove it from the books entirely.
According to the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, the vote on the Respect for Marriage Act is expected to take place in the afternoon. The Democratic-led House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill.
But it remains unclear whether it will make it through the Senate, where parties are split 50-50 and 60 votes are required for most legislation to pass. Many conservatives on the council would likely argue that states should decide their own same-sex marriage laws.
Lawmakers will also debate Tuesday to debate a bill to protect the right to contraception – another attempt to protect the right prompted by last month’s key court decision in the Medical Foundation Dobbs Women’s Health v. Jackson. The ruling removed legal precedents that had protected abortion rights for nearly 50 years.
Conservative majority, including three judges appointed by the former President Donald Trumpargued in part in his ruling that “the Constitution makes no mention of abortion and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”
That legal rationale raised widespread concern that the court could threaten other rights previously deemed settled.
A concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas amplified those concerns. Justice said the Dobbs ruling should prompt the court to reconsider landmark cases establishing the right to contraception, private sexual acts and same-sex marriage.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, DN.Y., said: “As this Court may be targeting other fundamental rights, we cannot sit idly by while the hard-earned gains from the movement are hard to come by. Equality is being systematically eroded,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler. The Respect for Marriage Act, which he sponsored.
“If the concurrence of Justice Thomas teaches anything that we cannot let your guard down or the rights and freedoms we hold dear will vanish into a cloud of radical and rationalist ideology. dubious legal reasoning,” Nadler’s statement said.
The other judges did not object to Thomas’ comments. But it raised concerns that the court, which currently has a conservative majority of 6 to 3, would be open to hearing cases challenging those rights in the future.
Samuel Alito, who has written for the majority in Dobbs, emphasizes, “Nothing in this view should be construed to cast doubt on non-abortion precedents.”
But critics, including three liberal judges of the courtnot convinced.
“We cannot understand how anyone can be confident that today’s opinion will be the last of its kind,” libertarians wrote in a poll. hotly debated at Dobbs.
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Monday that he believes bills that protect same-sex marriage and contraception can overcome the Senate’s 60-vote barrier, NBC News reported. Several Republican senators gave gallant responses when asked by NBC if they would vote for the legislation.
Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Sunday that the Supreme Court’s ruling respecting same-sex marriage was “clearly wrong. “
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
