SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL PASSES SENATE AFTER BIPARTISAN BREAKTHROUGH

The 61-to-36 vote sends the legislation back to the House, which is expected to approve it and send it to President Biden.

I have to say, I never thought I would live long enough to write that headline.

The Respect for Marriage Act will enshrine some elements of the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision into law. 

The final vote was 61 to 36, with Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) not voting.

The same 12 Republicans who voted to advance the bill through the first filibuster voted for the bill: Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Richard Burr (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Todd Young (R-IN). The decisive three - Blunt, Burr and Portman - who put the number over the line to block a filibuster are all leaving the Senate at the end of this congress.

The bill requires that people be considered married in any state as long as the marriage is valid in the state it was performed. That’s less than the protections in Obergefell, which requires all states to grant same-sex marriages. Should the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell, which Justice Clarence Thomas openly suggested could happen in the Dobbs decision, states would be able to reinstate bans on same-sex marriage. Similar to the current abortion landscape, couples living in states hostile to same-sex marriage would have to travel elsewhere to be legally wed. 

But the legislation also repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and gives states the right not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had delayed the vote until after the midterms when it became clear that it had a greater chance of attracting Republican support when they were less wary about alienating conservative voters.

The same-sex marriage legislation was just one of the many items on Democrats’ lame duck session to-do list, all the more urgent since Republicans have flipped the lower chamber. Alongside reforming the Electoral Count Act and keeping the government funded through December, the most pressing task before them is addressing the debt ceiling before Republicans can weaponize it. If Democrats manage to use reconciliation to raise the debt ceiling so high that it ceases to become a recurring problem, they’ll eliminate the possibility that a Republican House could take it hostage.

I know my friend David would join me in welcoming this day.

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