The USA House of Representatives passed the Respect for Marriage Act for protection marriage equalitya direct response to the US supreme court‘s suggestion that it could review cases that confirm this same-sex marriage strike down safeguards in its recent decision abortion rights.
All Democratic lawmakers supported passage of the bill on July 19, with only 47 Republicans joining in support; 157 Republicans voted against.
Democratic US Rep. Ritchie Torres, one of the first openly gay African American men elected to Congress, chaired the vote.
The bill repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which the Supreme Court found unconstitutional United States vs. Windsor. The groundbreaking decision in 2015 Obergefell against Hodges reaffirmed constitutional protections for same-sex marriages.
The legislation also reaffirms the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages and prohibits denying an out-of-state marriage “in good faith and repute” on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin, regardless of the state’s individual laws.
House lawmakers are also expected to vote this week on legislation to affirm the right to access contraceptives and formally codify another Supreme Court decision as Congressional Democrats anticipate trials at the state level, both the Undermining marriage equality as well as access to birth control after the Supreme Court was crushed Deer vs Wade and opened the door to future challenges that depend on 14th Amendment protection.
Following that June 24 ruling, Republican lawmakers across the US enacted tough anti-abortion laws previously considered unconstitutional, and conservative right groups and right-wing Christian lobbyists have been questioned for years LGBT+ Reproductive health rights and policies – seek to expand theirs influence on the provincial legislature.
Without explicit federal protections, Democratic lawmakers have feared that, like abortion, access to contraception and the recognition of same-sex marriages may depend on state protections.
In its unanimous statement in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health OrganizationJudge Clarence Thomas suggested that the court “reconsider all material due process precedents established by this court” – including landmark cases of contraception, same-sex marriage and gay sex.
“Because every substantial determination of due process is ‘provenly wrong’ … we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ found in those precedents,” Justice Thomas wrote. “The question that remains is whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated.”
Like the same-sex marriage bill, the Contraceptive Right Bill is expected to receive overwhelming Democratic support in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives this week.
But legislation faces an uncertain future in the often deadlocked Senate, which is repeatedly paralyzed by Republican obstruction. At least 60 votes are required for its passage in the evenly distributed upper chamber, with all Democratic-leaning senators supporting and supported by at least 10 Republicans.
