Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 15, 2022 / 15:55 pm (CNA).
The Senate has delayed a highly-anticipated vote to enshrine same-sex marriage into law until after the midterm elections this November.
The news was announced by lawmakers Thursday after weeks of bipartisan deliberations that left some Republicans with objections to the act’s potential religious liberty implications.
The bill, titled the Respect for Marriage Act, follows the House version that was passed earlier in July.
It is being led by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin). and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who are working across aisles to gain at least 10 GOP Senate votes needed to pass it.
Baldwin told reporters Thursday she is “very confident” the bill will pass but said she needs “a little more time.”
Some Republicans, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), have signaled a need to hammer out legislative protections for religious liberty.
“There are some very legitimate concerns about religious liberty, and those concerns would have to be properly addressed,” Johnson said in an interview last week.
Johnson called the act “unnecessary” but said he saw “no reason to oppose it” in a statement in July.
A record number of 47 Republicans joined Democrats in passing the bill in the House in July.
The bill would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage in federal law as the union of a man and a woman and permitted states not to recognize same-sex marriages that were contracted in other states.
DOMA was already effectively nullified, however, when the Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage rights in the 2013 and 2015 Supreme Court decisions United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges.
Democrats have pushed the bill as necessary after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in that decision, he suggested the court should reconsider all “substantive due process” cases, including the 2015 Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Well, of course they have postponed it. The Democrats are essentially dishonest, manipulative and amoral .This is a typical strategy. Most of all they dont want this to be an election talking point to potentially lose them votes. It should be ok though. Far too many of their most reliable voters dont appear to have a problem with their poisonous dishonesty and dangerous ideology anyway. As for the Republicans who supported this legislation in the house, I hope they eventually get voted out of office.
The midterm elections have nothing to do with the delay…
Unconfirmed reports from anonymous sources reveal that in reaching across the aisle Baldwin and Collins caused unfamiliar levels of convulsion when–even upon close inspection–neither could identify what a “woman” is, nor the meaning of the term “marriage,” nor “sex,” nor “religious liberty” nor even the meaning of “religious” or “liberty.”
Decorum then was partially restored when Collins complained somewhat coherently about the Justice Clarence Thomas concurring opinion in the Dobbs ruling. But then Baldwin shook uncontrollably, tearfully pouting something about a new Leftist supreme court justice who has disallowed any such definitive discussion within her party, as to what a woman might be, or might not be, or whatever.
At this point, emergency Congressional therapists were summoned into the chamber, but none came as all of them were predisposed, tending to the unresolved needs of one another.