The House voted 258-169 on Thursday to approve the “Respect for Marriage Act,” a bipartisan bill protecting same-sex and interracial marriage.
All 169 “no” votes were Republican. Thirty-nine Republicans voted yes along with 219 Democrats to pass the bill, which was approved in the Senate along bipartisan lines on November 29.
President Biden is expected to sign the bill promptly.
The bill would not set a national requirement that all states must legalize same-sex marriage, but it would require individual states to recognize another state’s legal marriage.
It is intended to ensure that the Supreme Court does not take away the right that was guaranteed by the 2015 decision Obergefell v Hodges, as conservative Justice Clarence Thomas suggested was possible when the Court struck down the right to abortion.
