Respect for Marriage Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, we thought the Democrats were obsessed with President Trump, but Justice Thomas is a close second. This bill is simply the latest installment of the Democrats' campaign to delegitimize and attempt to intimidate the United States Supreme Court.
It started when President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh--that was just too much for the left to bear--and they launched a smear campaign in an attempt to derail his nomination.
Then we saw Senator Schumer stand on the steps--remember, a leader in the legislative branch--stand on the steps of the Supreme Court, a separate and equal branch of government, and threaten Supreme Court Justices. He said: I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you've released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.
Just last month, a crazed individual attempted to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh in his home. An assassination attempt on a sitting Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
For months, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have pursued this narrative that the Supreme Court is somehow illegitimate. Members of the committee, including the chairman, have introduced a bill to pack the Court to add four associate Justices to our highest court.
The committee has held hearings that can only be interpreted as an attempt to lay the groundwork for an effort to impeach Justice Thomas. Today, the Democrats bring forward a bill that is completely unnecessary.
Why are the Democrats going down this path?
Because, frankly, they have nothing else. We are debating this bill today because it is July of an election year and inflation is at a level not seen in 40 years. It is the highest inflation rate in 41 years. The price of gas, the price of food, the price of daily necessities have skyrocketed. We are debating this bill today because illegal immigration is at unprecedented levels.
Last month, Customs and Border Patrol reported that we have already surpassed the prior years' total for encounters at our southern border, and we still have 3 months left in the fiscal year.
We are debating this bill today because they can't talk about the fact that our country is gripped by an epidemic of violent crime in every major urban area in this country. Every day, Americans are being assaulted, robbed, and murdered in our cities.
We are here because the Democrats have no answers and desperately hope that a manufactured crisis will help them in November. The Democrats want Americans to believe that the Supreme Court at any moment could step in and overturn its opinions in Obergefell and Loving--that is simply not true.
The very decision that Democrats say creates this threat explicitly denies it--explicitly disclaims it. Here is what the court said in the Dobbs decision. The Dobbs decision should not be misunderstood, mischaracterized to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.
The court condemned the idea that the Dobbs decision would lead to an overturning of other cases, stating, ``Perhaps this is designed to stoke unfounded fear that our decision will imperil other rights.''
It is this unfounded fear that brings us here today. We are here for a charade; we are here for political messaging. The Democrats can't run on their disastrous record, they can't run on any accomplishments. It is less than 4 months before an election and all Democrats can do is stoke unfounded fears, and so that is why we are here with this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I hope we can defeat it. I hope it doesn't pass. As I said, it is unnecessary and wrong. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. JORDAN. The gentlewoman used the word ``violence.'' Violence? Fifty crisis pregnancy centers and churches have been attacked in the last 11 weeks--50 in 11 weeks. Think about that.
As I said in my opening statement, the leader of the Senate stood on the steps of the Supreme Court and said to two specific Justices: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. The Speaker of this body waited 4 weeks to give protection to Supreme Court Justices' families after the left had posted online where her kids go to school, where their family attends church on Sunday morning. And in that interim, during that time after that bill had come out of the Senate unanimously, we had the assassination attempt on one of the Justices-- one of the very Justices that the Senate Democrat leader had referenced in his comments on the steps of the Supreme Court.
And, of course, the Attorney General of the United States refuses to prosecute anyone who has protested at those Justices' homes in direct violation of the statute while the case was still pending in front of the court. Directly on point.
So concerns of violence--yeah, we all have concerns. She is right about one thing: We all have concerns about violence. But I just want everyone to understand what is going on as we speak. Fifty pregnancy centers and churches in 11 weeks. I don't know if we have ever seen anything like that--that kind attack on the pro-life community.
Even so much that a witness who came in front of our committee for the second time--she was here a few months ago and came back the second time. The second time she had to bring security with her because of threats against her life.
The chairman of the full committee is right. This legislation would, in fact, codify Obergefell. But what it would also do is reverse the law in 35 States, where those States have said, marriage should be what--you know--traditional marriage. In fact, in 30 of those 35 States, the people of those respective States went to the ballot and voted for that.
So let's be clear. He is right. You can codify what the Court said in that decision, but it would undo what the people in the respective States, 35 States, either in 5 of those States through their elected Representatives in the legislature, or in 30 of those States where the people went to the voting booth and voted, it would undo that.
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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, the Speaker of the House just said, ``Republicans knew the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional when they passed it.''
Did the 118 Democrats who voted for that legislation know the same thing? Did the President of the United States, President Clinton, when he signed it into law, did he know it was unconstitutional?
I mean, I have heard some ridiculous things said on the House floor in my time here in the United States Congress, but that one--that one-- was right up there.
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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, as I said at the outset and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) have said, we think this legislation is unnecessary.
Justice Alito was very clear--again, it has been read several times-- the Dobbs decision should not be misunderstood or mischaracterized to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.
The Court couldn't have been clearer. The Obergefell decision undid what 35 States have as law in their respective States. Thirty of those States it was the vote of the people, as I said before. But this legislation is going to, I guess, just go after the decision of the respective States, and, as I said, the voters in those States.
I think it is also, as we have indicated, a further effort to intimidate the Court. We have had Senator Schumer's statements on the Supreme Court steps, we have had the AG's inaction with regard to protestors at Justices' homes, and, of course, we have had the Democrats' introduction of a bill to add four Associate Justices to the Supreme Court to pack the Court, and not focus on some of the things that are so pressing.
I mean, Mr. Johnson was right when he talked about 50 attacks on churches and pro-life crisis pregnancy centers in 11 weeks. That last clause is important. In that short a time frame, that sustained effort by the left to go after the pro-life community and places of worship is as wrong as it gets. I would love to have a hearing on that issue and what actions we might be able to take to help stop that because that is not supposed to happen in our great country.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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