Just two weeks after the Obama administration announced it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, legislators in both chambers of Congress introduced measures to fully repeal the federal ban on same-sex marriage.
The Respect for Marriage Act was introduced Wednesday by lead sponsors Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
The House version has 108 cosponsors and includes cosponsorship from out Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who did not sign on to the bill last session.
The legslation was first introduced in the House in 2009 with 91 original cosponsors and died in committee with 120 cosponsors. This marks the first time the Respect for Marriage Act has been introduced in the Senate.
The bill would repeal DOMA, which defines marriage as being between one man and one woman in federal law and prevents the federal government from recognizing legal same-sex marriages.
Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese commented Wednesday that the 15 years that have elapsed since DOMA’s introduction have served to highlight the true impact of the law.
“In 1996, DOMA was just hypothetical discrimination because every state excluded same-sex couples from marriage,” he said. “Today we see it is much more concrete terms — as tangible, heart-wrenching, real-life discrimination.”
Late last month, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he and President Obama agreed that the Department of Justice would no longer defend the law in federal court, as they had determined sexual-orientation discrimination deserved a stricter standard of review, under which DOMA would be found unconstitutional.
Without the DOJ backing DOMA, defense of the law — which is being challenged by several federal lawsuits — was left up to Congress. The Bi-Partisan House Legal Advisory Group, led by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a 3-2 vote March 9 decided to intervene and defend the law.
On March 3, opponents in the House introduced a resolution condemning President Obama on his decision to drop his DOMA defense.
The legislators argued that the “vast majority” of Americans are opposed to marriage equality and noted DOMA passed by a significant margin in both chambers, while the DOJ continues to “vigorously” defend laws such as the health-care reform, which were approved by slimmer margins.
The nonbinding resolution measure has 94 cosponsors, including Pennsylvania Reps. Mike Kelly (R-3rd Dist.) and Joe Pitts (R-16th Dist.).
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].