WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators split along party lines Wednesday on a vote to safeguard same-sex and interracial marriage.
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey voted in favor of the bill, dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act.
“Americans in interracial and same-sex marriages deserve nothing less than equal rights,” Casey tweeted in the hours before the Senate floor roll call vote.
The bill cleared the Senate’s procedural vote in a 62-37 margin, with 12 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in the upper chamber. The cloture vote sets in motion 30 hours of debate on the bill. A final vote could occur this week or after Thanksgiving.
Pennsylvania’s Republican Sen. Pat Toomey was among the nay votes, citing threats to faith-based organizations.
“While the Respect for Marriage Act purports to simply codify the existing right to same-sex marriage, which is not in jeopardy, it goes far beyond that in ways that threaten religious liberty,” Toomey said in a statement Wednesday. “This legislation would enable activists to sue faith-based groups that provide vital services for our communities in an attempt to force them to abandon their deeply held beliefs about marriage, or close their doors.”
The legislation repeals and replaces Clinton-era language that recognized marriage under federal law as only between a man and a woman, and defined spouse as a person of the opposite sex.
The 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage Act, commonly referred to as DOMA, was essentially gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. That year, the high court held in Obergefell v. Hodges that state laws barring same-sex marriages were unconstitutional. The court held the same for interracial marriages in Loving v. Virginia in 1967.
The new legislation also ensures that states do not deny rights to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity or national origin.
Concern about the guarantee of Supreme Court decisions granting private rights, such as marriage, began to surge after the conservative court in June overturned federal protections for abortion.
Toomey called concerns about the Supreme Court repealing same-sex marriage “unfounded.”
The U.S. House passed the legislation in July with a 267-157 margin.
Western Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation split along party lines. Reps. Mike Doyle and Conor Lamb voted in favor; Reps. John Joyce, Mike Kelly, Guy Reschenthaler and Glenn Thompson voted against.
