Bipartisan Senate majority advances Respect for Marriage Act - MSNBC

By each appearances, the Respect for Marriage Act was good positioned to win months ago. As regular readers mightiness recall, successful July, a bipartisan House bulk passed the legislation, which would codify same-sex matrimony successful national instrumentality and support matrimony equality from Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices. Soon after, polls showed strong nationalist support for the idea.

All proponents needed was 10 GOP senators who’d hold to fto members ballot connected the bill. Today, those votes were there, and the measure cleared a procedural hurdle that enactment it connected way to go law. NBC News reported:

The Senate voted Wednesday to unfastened statement connected a measure that would codify national protections for same-sex marriage, signaling that the authorities has capable Republican enactment to pass. Lawmakers precocious the authorities successful a 62-37 ballot days aft Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed to proceed connected an updated mentation of the measurement released by a bipartisan radical of senators.

In all, 12 Senate Republicans sided with the Democratic bulk connected the procedural vote.

For those who mightiness request a fresher, let’s revisit our earlier coverage and reappraisal however we arrived astatine this point.

When Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion successful which helium said the precocious court’s 2015 ruling connected matrimony equality, among others, was “demonstrably erroneous” and should beryllium “reconsidered.” It was portion of a bid of developments successful GOP authorities that suggested increasing absorption to same-sex marriage, contempt the evident extremity of the quality respective years ago.

Democrats, led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, pushed the Respect for Marriage Act to codify the presumption quo for same-sex and interracial couples into national law. The program was to clasp a ballot earlier the midterm elections.

For Democratic strategists, this looked similar a win-win scenario. If Senate Republicans backed the legislation, it would pass, go law, and support millions of American families. If Senate Republicans balked, Democrats would usage this against them, seizing connected this arsenic caller grounds of the GOP’s radicalism and regressive perspective.

At least, that was the plan. In September, Democratic leaders backed disconnected successful the hopes that much clip would pb to much votes.

In fact, Sen. Roy Blunt, a subordinate of the GOP leadership, agreed that proponents would get much votes aft the elections than before. “If I wanted to walk that, and I was the bulk person and I wanted to get arsenic galore votes arsenic they tin perchance get, I’d hold until aft the election,” the retiring Missouri lawmaker said.

The effect was a gamble: The governing bulk was truthful determined to really get this done that Democratic leaders reluctantly decided to hold successful the hopes that the Republican votes would materialize aft the pressures of the predetermination play person subsided.

What guarantees were determination that Republicans volition travel done and assistance extremity a filibuster during the lame-duck session? None — but the gamble paid disconnected anyway.

The adjacent measurement volition beryllium a last Senate ballot connected the bipartisan compromise — astatine that point, the authorities volition lone request 50 votes — and past the altered measure volition caput backmost the Democratic-led House earlier going to the White House.

There person been immoderate large civilian rights breakthroughs successful caller years, and this is an important summation to the list.

Postscript: There is simply a familiarity to the circumstances. Twelve years ago, Senate Democrats tried to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, but they couldn’t flooded a Republican filibuster. After the midterm elections, Democrats tried again. It worked: Then-Sen. John McCain each but begged his GOP colleagues not to let openly cheery Americans to service successful the military, but respective Republicans — including immoderate who’d backed the partisan filibuster months earlier — ignored him, sided with Democrats, and ended DADT.