The House is set to vote to protect same-sex marriages Tuesday, in response to the Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and shared thoughts on the matters in their dissent.
In his response to Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said other rulings similar to Roe, including those around same-sex marriage, should be reconsidered as they are not necessarily constitutional rights.
While Alito stated in the majority opinion that “this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” others have begun to express concern over rights such as same-sex marriage.
Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case legalizing same-sex marriage, said after the court’s ruling on abortion, “When we lose one right that we have relied on and enjoyed, other rights are at risk.”
Tuesday’s vote in the House is part political strategy setting up an election-year roll call meant to force Republicans and Democrats to go on the record with their views on the high-profile social issue. The move is also part of the legislative branch asserting its authority, pushing back against the judicial branch that it believes is usurping authority.
While the Respect for Marriage Act is expected to pass the House, it is likely to stall in the Senate among more conservative lawmakers.
The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal a leftover law still on the books from the Clinton era that defines marriage as a heterogeneous relationship between man and woman. The 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage Act, was sidelined by Obergefell v. Hodges, which established the rights of same-sex couples to marry nationwide, a landmark case for gay rights.
The Respect for Marriage Act would also provide legal protections for interracial marriages by prohibiting any state from denying out-of-state marriage licenses and benefits based on sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.
This past weekend Texas Senator Ted Cruz said the U.S. Supreme Court was ‘clearly wrong’ in its landmark 2015 case legalizing same-sex marriage.
Democrats are hoping to make this an issue in the upcoming midterm elections. They can’t run on anything else after they destroyed the economy, border, and US foreign policy.
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