- Joined
- Nov 13, 2009
- Messages
- 45,544
- Reaction score
- 12,406
Final Post 12/13/22
Final update here. Bill is signed. Not a big surprise or any further development.
Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act, reflecting his and the country's evolution
NPR
Updated Post 12/8/22
House voted on this first but they needed to vote again to affirm the religious protections pieces the senate added to get enough support for 60+ votes. This is all but finished at this point so we will now have a codified floor on states recognizing gay marriage and also interracial marriage protections as well though that wasn’t seen as something that really would be overturned by the courts unless you really believe Clarence Thomas would rule against protections for his own marriage.
I know there are people who aren’t fans of the filibuster but consider now that gay marriage would now need over 60 votes to be invalidated assuming there wasn’t a SCOTUS ruling that protected it. If you really think Democrats would never pull back on that right, then its nearly impossible you will see something like that ever pass as it’s very hard for a party to get 60 votes in this era and also have both the house and White House. The filibuster ensures when social change happens, there’s a reasonable amount of agreement and then makes it pretty hard to reverse. Say we trashed the filibuster. You have a far more likely chance of those rights being reversed if you really have little faith in republicans.
Respect for Marriage Act overcomes GOP opposition, passes House
MSNBC
Updated Post 11/29/22
Passed 61-36. A second vote will be needed in the house due to the amendments in the senate version and then to Biden’s desk
Senate passes landmark protections for same-sex marriage
The Hill
Updated Post 11/29/22
Another procedural vote went through yesterday. Today (Tuesday) around noon, we should be seeing amendment votes for the bill from Mike Lee (UT), Marco Rubio (FL) and James Lankford (OK). I don’t know all the amendments from these three but Lee’s seems to be about more religious protections. Quite a few changes got made for this before the bill made it to the floor and it was enough to get some religious groups in favor of the bill, including the church of Latter Day Saints.
One other item here I don’t think I covered is this bill will serve as a floor/ net compared to the SCOTUS ruling which is the ceiling on gay marriage rights. The SCOTUS ruling made each state have to allow gay marriage. This current bill will make each state have to recognize another states marriages. So essentially, if the SCOTUS ruling was reversed, you’d have some states that don’t host gay marriage and others that do. Couples which would get married in the states that allow it would still have their marriage recognized in states that don’t allow it. So it’s slightly less protections but would still give a path for any couple to still get married and have it recognized wherever they go in the country.
Live Feed
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/floor_activity_pail.htm
Updated Post 9/15/22
Looks like due to the small window left, the vote will not happen until at least November after midterms
Senate delays same-sex marriage vote until after midterms
Politico
Original Post 7/19/22
As part of the recent Dobbs decision, Pelosi and house democrats have decided to put two bill through, one about contraception and the other (this thread) to codify interracial and gay marriage into federal law. This is in reaction to the idea Loving v Virginia and/ or Obergefell v. Hodges cases being overturned at the SCOTUS.
House passes bill to protect same-sex marriage in effort to counter Supreme Court
CNN
Unsure if this goes anywhere in the senate but if it did and passed, this could signal that we truly are seeing Congress become more active in reaction to the courts decisions with their own follow up legislation. This isn’t to say the bill passing would be equivalent to the current law of the land with the past rulings which ruled these as rights whereas a federal law could just being overturned in the future. Look like Feinstein put out a senate version just today.
Congress bill overview
Final update here. Bill is signed. Not a big surprise or any further development.
Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act, reflecting his and the country's evolution
NPR
Updated Post 12/8/22
House voted on this first but they needed to vote again to affirm the religious protections pieces the senate added to get enough support for 60+ votes. This is all but finished at this point so we will now have a codified floor on states recognizing gay marriage and also interracial marriage protections as well though that wasn’t seen as something that really would be overturned by the courts unless you really believe Clarence Thomas would rule against protections for his own marriage.
I know there are people who aren’t fans of the filibuster but consider now that gay marriage would now need over 60 votes to be invalidated assuming there wasn’t a SCOTUS ruling that protected it. If you really think Democrats would never pull back on that right, then its nearly impossible you will see something like that ever pass as it’s very hard for a party to get 60 votes in this era and also have both the house and White House. The filibuster ensures when social change happens, there’s a reasonable amount of agreement and then makes it pretty hard to reverse. Say we trashed the filibuster. You have a far more likely chance of those rights being reversed if you really have little faith in republicans.
Respect for Marriage Act overcomes GOP opposition, passes House
MSNBC
Updated Post 11/29/22
Passed 61-36. A second vote will be needed in the house due to the amendments in the senate version and then to Biden’s desk
Senate passes landmark protections for same-sex marriage
The Hill
Updated Post 11/29/22
Another procedural vote went through yesterday. Today (Tuesday) around noon, we should be seeing amendment votes for the bill from Mike Lee (UT), Marco Rubio (FL) and James Lankford (OK). I don’t know all the amendments from these three but Lee’s seems to be about more religious protections. Quite a few changes got made for this before the bill made it to the floor and it was enough to get some religious groups in favor of the bill, including the church of Latter Day Saints.
One other item here I don’t think I covered is this bill will serve as a floor/ net compared to the SCOTUS ruling which is the ceiling on gay marriage rights. The SCOTUS ruling made each state have to allow gay marriage. This current bill will make each state have to recognize another states marriages. So essentially, if the SCOTUS ruling was reversed, you’d have some states that don’t host gay marriage and others that do. Couples which would get married in the states that allow it would still have their marriage recognized in states that don’t allow it. So it’s slightly less protections but would still give a path for any couple to still get married and have it recognized wherever they go in the country.
Live Feed
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/floor_activity_pail.htm
Updated Post 9/15/22
Looks like due to the small window left, the vote will not happen until at least November after midterms
Senate delays same-sex marriage vote until after midterms
Politico
Original Post 7/19/22
As part of the recent Dobbs decision, Pelosi and house democrats have decided to put two bill through, one about contraception and the other (this thread) to codify interracial and gay marriage into federal law. This is in reaction to the idea Loving v Virginia and/ or Obergefell v. Hodges cases being overturned at the SCOTUS.
House passes bill to protect same-sex marriage in effort to counter Supreme Court
CNN
Unsure if this goes anywhere in the senate but if it did and passed, this could signal that we truly are seeing Congress become more active in reaction to the courts decisions with their own follow up legislation. This isn’t to say the bill passing would be equivalent to the current law of the land with the past rulings which ruled these as rights whereas a federal law could just being overturned in the future. Look like Feinstein put out a senate version just today.
Congress bill overview
Last edited:
