The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would codify same-sex marriage into federal law on Tuesday, with large numbers of Republican lawmakers joining all Democrats in supporting the legislation.
Forty-seven Republicans joined all Democrats in voting for the bill, named the Respect for Marriage Act, after House GOP leadership announced that it would not be whipping rank-and-file lawmakers to oppose it. The final vote tally was 267-157, with all no votes coming from Republicans.
Among the nearly four dozen Republicans to back the legislation were Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), the head of House Republicans’ campaign arm. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) opposed the bill.
Other notable Republicans to support the bill included Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Scott Perry (PA), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and every member of Utah’s congressional delegation. Several Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, including Rep. Liz Cheney (WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL), also voted for the legislation.
Democrats introduced the bill on Monday in response to concerns that the Supreme Court could revisit the right to same-sex marriage in light of the high court’s decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the ability to restrict abortion to the states.
If enacted, the Respect for Marriage Act would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that defined marriage for federal purposes as a union between one man and one woman. While DOMA was struck down by the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 ruling that established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, it has never been repealed. The Respect for Marriage Act would also alter the federal definition of marriage to include same-sex unions and require states to recognize same-sex marriages.
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Polls have shown large majorities favor keeping such unions legal.
In debate preceding the floor vote, Democrats repeatedly cited Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization as justification for the bill and evidence that the right to same-sex marriage was under threat. In his opinion, Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court ought to “reconsider” its decision in Obergefell along with rulings in other landmark cases such as Lawrence v. Texas, which banned the criminalization of same-sex sexual activity, and Griswold v. Connecticut, which guaranteed the right to access contraception.
While no other justices joined Thomas in his opinion, and Justice Samuel Alito maintained in the court’s majority opinion that the Dobbs ruling did not place any other judicial precedents in jeopardy, Democrats were outraged by his suggestion, and many activists demanded a legislative response to circumvent future Supreme Court rulings that could put rights to same-sex marriage and contraception at risk. As a result, the House is also set to vote this week on the Right to Contraception Act, which would enshrine the right to access contraception in federal law.
Several openly gay members of Congress spoke about the Respect for Marriage Act in deeply personal terms in floor speeches preceding the vote.
Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) recounted his struggle to come to terms with his sexual orientation in an emotional address, while Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) described his struggle to gain legal recognition for his relationship with his partner of three decades before Obergefell. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) referenced his past hospitalization for triple bypass surgery, noting that legal recognition of his marriage allowed his husband to visit him in the hospital and retain inheritance rights.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who led floor debate for Republicans, encouraged his GOP colleagues to vote against the Respect for Marriage Act, calling it a “charade” and deriding it as an attempt to intimidate the Supreme Court. Other Republicans, including Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), said the bill was unnecessary and divisive in light of Obergefell’s continued existence as judicial precedent, while conservative Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) argued that it would improperly impose a federal definition of marriage on the states.
Notably, however, every Republican who spoke in opposition to the bill declined to state explicitly that marriage was a union between one man and one woman, which was the GOP’s historical position and is the definition of marriage contained within the Defense of Marriage Act.
Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican, predicted at a press briefing earlier in the day that the vote would “split” the GOP, noting that Republican leaders were not whipping against the bill and were instead urging rank-and-file lawmakers to vote their conscience.
“Every member obviously is going to have to make their own vote on [the bill],” Scalise said.
A group of senators, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), introduced a companion version of the Respect for Marriage Act on Monday, but it’s unclear if and when it will receive a vote by the upper chamber. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday declined to say whether he would bring the legislation up for a Senate floor vote, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) acknowledged that it could be difficult to schedule a vote given the Senate’s packed calendar.
“We have more priorities than we have time,” Durbin noted.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters at a press conference that he would “delay” announcing his position on the Respect for Marriage Act, and whether he would whip Republican senators to oppose it, until Schumer schedules a floor vote.
The White House issued a statement shortly before the House vote, supporting the bill’s passage and condemning DOMA as “unconstitutional and discriminatory.” In 1996, President Joe Biden, then a senator, voted for DOMA, as did large majorities of Democrats in the House and Senate.
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While many Republicans are eager to move past same-sex marriage as a political issue, some conservatives have defied that trend. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell “clearly wrong” in a recent episode of his podcast, asserting that the high court “ignored two centuries of our nation’s history” when it defined same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.
In Obergefell, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the right to marriage was guaranteed to same-sex couples under both the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
