Sen. Schumer Says Senate Will Vote on Same-Sex Marriage Bill in September

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the Senate would vote on legislation codifying the right to same-sex marriage into federal law next month, capping off weeks of speculation and signaling Democrats are optimistic the bill will have enough GOP support to avert a filibuster.

Schumer’s remarks to reporters came on Sunday afternoon after the upper chamber passed Democrats’ sweeping healthcare, tax, and climate bill following a marathon 27-hour “vote-a-rama.” While he has said that he hoped to bring the bill, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, up for a vote, he declined to commit to holding one, and some members of Senate Democratic leadership expressed skepticism that the chamber would have enough time on its legislative calendar to take up the bill. Schumer’s most recent comments pledging a September vote mark the first time he’s set a specific timeline for the Senate to consider the legislation.

Democrats introduced the Respect for Marriage Act last month in response to their concerns that the Supreme Court could revisit the right to same-sex marriage in light of the high court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the ability to restrict abortion to the states. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill just one day after it was introduced, with 47 Republicans — including members of House GOP leadership — joining all Democrats in voting for the bill.

All 50 Senate Democrats are expected to back the Respect for Marriage Act in a floor vote, but Schumer needs the support of at least 10 Republican senators in order to stave off a filibuster in the evenly divided chamber. While many observers were initially skeptical it would be able to win enough GOP support to cross the critical 60-vote threshold, in the days and weeks following the bill’s July 19 House passage, Republican openness to the legislation materialized from unexpected corners.

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Four Senate Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Thom Tillis (NC), Rob Portman (OH), and Lisa Murkowski (AK), have come out in explicit support of the Respect for Marriage Act. A fifth, Sen. Ron Johnson (WI), has described the bill as “unnecessary” but said he sees “no reason to oppose it,” while others, including Sens. Joni Ernst (IA) and Tommy Tuberville (AL), have signaled their support for same-sex marriage but stopped short of publicly endorsing the bill.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the first openly gay senator and Democrats’ point-person on mustering GOP support for the legislation, told the New York Times last week that enough Republicans to avoid a filibuster had privately assured her of their support. In particular, Sens. Mike Braun (IN), Mitt Romney (UT), Todd Young (IN), Pat Toomey (PA), Mike Rounds (SD), and Shelley Moore Capito (WV) are among a group of GOP senators who are publicly undecided on the bill and seen as potentially open to backing it in a floor vote.

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. In addition, the bill would codify the right to interracial marriage, enshrining into federal law rights established by the Supreme Court’s 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia.

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.

Democrats repeatedly cited Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization as justification for introducing the bill and as evidence that the right to same-sex marriage was under threat. In his opinion, Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court should “reconsider” its decision in Obergefell along with rulings in other landmark cases, such as Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down bans on same-sex sexual activity, and Griswold v. Connecticut, which guaranteed the right to access contraception.

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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. While the House passed a bill last month that would codify the right to access contraception, the bill was broadly opposed by Republicans and has little chance of winning enough GOP support to pass the Senate.

President Joe Biden is certain to sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law if it’s passed by the Senate. In a statement of administration policy issued last month, the White House said that Biden “strongly supports” the bill and efforts to repeal DOMA, which it described as “unconstitutional and discriminatory.”