Retiring Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman told Fox News on Wednesday that he believes the Senate will receive the necessary votes to pass the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act,” which codifies homosexual marriage, repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, forces every state to recognize any marriage from any other state and puts at jeopardy religious liberty for various organizations.
Portman told Fox News he thinks there will be at least 10 Republicans who support the bill. There are already five — Senators Susan Collins, Ron Johnson, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis and Portman.
“All we’re talking about is the status quo,” Portman said. “And frankly, it’s a legislative function. In my view, it’s the appropriate role of Congress to speak here and to be sure that, one, we are ensuring that people who are in relationships already aren’t at risk of losing the ability to move from state to state, which is what this is about. And then, two, we’ve got to be sure that we’re not keeping on the books legislation that says that states don’t have to honor other states, which is currently the law on the books.”
Portman said it may be true that homosexual marriage isn’t at risk of being reviewed by the Supreme Court, but he said there is a “risk” out there.
“There are about a million families that are in these relationships that are very worried about it,” he said. “They’ve adopted kids, they’ve got financial arrangements and so on. So I think it’s good to clarify just the status quo. And by the way, those of us who are for clarifying this also believe in religious liberty. And we think there ought to be some additional protections put in the legislation that passed the House regarding religious liberty. We’re working with our colleagues on that.”
Portman said he believes that will “raise the bar” for religious liberty, along with forcing states to recognize valid marriages from other states.
Respect? Disrespect for God who created marriage. A civil union would have functioned just as well, without federal entangling itself in the business of “marriage”.
“Portman said it may be true that homosexual marriage isn’t at risk of being reviewed by the Supreme Court, but he said there is a “risk” out there.”
And this law would preempt SCOTUS from ruling it unconstitutional? Methinks the Senator doesn’t understand the balance of power, especially when the Constitution grants no enumerate power to the federal government to decide what is or isn’t marriage.