— Washington On Monday, a bipartisan group of senators announced that they had reached an agreement on revised legislation that would enshrine marriage equality in federal law and provide protections for religious liberties, assuaging the fears of some Republican senators who feared the measure would infringe on religious liberty.
The five senators involved in the negotiations announced in a joint statement that they had drafted “commonsense language to confirm that this legislation fully respects and protects the religious liberties and diverse beliefs of all Americans, while preserving the legislation’s core mission to protect marriage equality.”
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona represent the Democrats, and Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina represent the Republicans.
Senators did not say when the bill would be taken to the Senate floor for a vote, but they were confident that the change to the legislation, the Respect for Marriage Act, “has helped gain the wide, bipartisan support necessary to bring our commonsense legislation into law.”
The amendment ensures that nonprofit religious organizations will not be required to provide services, facilities, or goods for the celebration of a same-sex marriage and protects religious liberty and conscience protections under the Constitution and federal law, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It further specifies that the measure does not authorize the federal government to recognize polygamous marriage and protects any advantage or status of an entity, such as tax exemptions, grants, contracts, or educational support, so long as it does not result from a marriage.
According to the bipartisan group, the amendment “recognizes the importance of marriage, acknowledges that diverse beliefs and their adherents deserve respect, and affirms that all couples, including same-sex and interracial couples, deserve the dignity, stability, and ongoing protection of marriage.”
The Respect for Marriage Act was one of the earliest legislative responses by Congress to the Supreme Court’s June ruling that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. A concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas caused legislators to fear that further Supreme Court judgments upholding the right to same-sex marriage could be threatened by the court’s conservative majority.
The measure repeals the Defense of Marriage Act from the Clinton administration and protects interracial marriages by mandating that valid unions be recognized regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
The bill easily cleared the Democratically-controlled House in July with the support of 47 Republicans, and a number of Republican senators have signaled their support for the idea, increasing its chances of surpassing the 60-vote threshold required for legislation to progress in the Senate.
However, other Republicans complained that the House plan could infringe on religious freedom, prompting a bipartisan group of senators to begin working on an amendment to address these concerns.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed in September to postpone a vote until after the midterm elections, which were held last week, in the hopes of gaining more support for the bill with religious liberty safeguards and paving the road for its Senate ratification.
If the Senate approves the marriage equality measure with the modification, the House will need to reconsider the bill.