There are two things to remember about the Respect for Marriage Act. One, it is unnecessary. And two, it's going to become law.
...The act would codify gay marriage in the United States. The reason it is unnecessary is that the Supreme Court has already declared, in the 2015 Obergefell decision, that gay marriage is a constitutional right....
Indeed, in Dobbs, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, author of the decision, took care to specify that the question of marriage is far different legally from the question of abortion because nobody gets killed....
...There is no evidence that any other justice agrees with Thomas and much evidence that they don't. It appears that Thomas is a lone voice call for a review of Obergefell.
...But the bill did more than say, "Gay marriage is legal." It created what is called a "private right of action" for anyone to sue any government agency, official, contractor, or partner who did not recognize gay marriage. It could, in other words, become a gay marriage lawsuit machine.
...Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) offered another amendment that he said would solve the problem. It said the federal government "shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person speaks, or acts, in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief, or moral conviction, that marriage is or should be recognized as 1) a union of one man and one woman; or 2) two individuals as recognized under federal law."
That, supporters of the amendment argued, would fix the deficiencies of the original bill. But the Senate refused to take up Lee's amendment....
Once the act is finally passed and signed into law, we will see whether it is simply a redundant protection of gay marriage already protected by the Supreme Court as a constitutional right or whether it is a lawsuit factory leading to a new wave of activism against religious conservatives around the country. We don't know what will happen. But we do know that activists love to file lawsuits, and they have just been given a new way to do so.
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Originally Posted by Chris
