Durbin expressed concerns same-sex marriage bill won’t pass if Republican Party controls Senate
On Sunday, Senator Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) voiced his concern that a measure that would codify protections for same-sex marriage would fail to clear the Senate in the event that the GOP wins control of the Senate in November.
“I am worried about that,” Durbin said when asked about the bill’s prognosis under Republican control.
In July, the House of Representatives voted to adopt a measure that would make it mandatory for states to recognize same-sex weddings that are lawfully conducted in other states. Since then, Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and other Democrats have been trying to get the ten Republican votes needed to break the Senate filibuster.
Baldwin made the announcement the previous week that the bill’s negotiations would be postponed until after the midterm elections in November, when Republicans seek to flip the house and break the Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the chamber. The individuals who emerge victorious in those competitions will be sworn into office in January.
“My North Star on this issue is Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. She has led the bipartisan effort, and she believes this is the right way to deal with it. I defer to her,” Durbin said on NBC.
Some Republican senators, like North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Ohio’s Rob Portman, have shown support for the plan so far.
It was stated by Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, that the plan would be considerably more likely to gain stronger support from Republicans if a vote were to be scheduled after Election Day. In order to get more support from Republicans, the negotiators also worked on making changes to the plan. For example, they made changes that made provisions for religious freedom clearer.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that had established a constitutional right to abortion, Democrats have been looking to pass the measure.
In a concurring opinion that he wrote for the case, Justice Clarence Thomas urged the court to review previous decisions that had been made based on the principle of substantive due process. Substantive due process is a legal framework that is based on the 14th Amendment and was responsible for decisions such as Obergefell v. Hodges, which protected same-sex marriages across the country.
“This is a serious issue, just like the Dobbs decision. Clarence Thomas made it clear that he’s going to move toward overthrowing the Supreme Court case related to gay rights in this country. We better take him seriously,” Durbin said.
