Respect for Marriage Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, the Democrats want Americans to believe that the Supreme Court at any moment--in fact, the chairman just referenced this--at any moment could step in and overturn its opinions in Obergefell and Loving. It is just not true. The Supreme Court is not poised to overturn its opinions in either of those decisions.
Just look at what the Court has said. The Dobbs opinion does not undermine other substantive due process rights in any way. Just in case anyone is not clear on the meaning of does not undermine them in any way, the Court later reiterated that the Dobbs decision should not be misunderstood or mischaracterized `` . . . to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.''
The Court condemned the alarmist idea that the Dobbs decision would lead to the overturning of other cases as ``perhaps . . . designed to stoke unfounded fear that our decision will imperil those other rights . . . ''
It is that unfounded fear that brings us here today.
Democrats have conjured up this nonexistent threat based on one line in Justice Thomas' concurrence in Dobbs, and they are misunderstanding or deliberately misrepresenting what Justice Thomas wrote.
Justice Thomas made the same point that he has made for years: that the collection of rights secured by the doctrine of substantive due process is better understood as being a function of the Constitution's privileges and immunities clause. That is it.
From his statement that a body of law should flow from one place in the Constitution instead of another comes the hyperbolic arguments that we have heard about the necessity of this bill.
After the House last considered this bill in July, the Senate was forced to make significant changes to the bill. Unfortunately, those changes do not go far enough in protecting religious liberty.
For example, the Senate amendment does not protect a private entity that is determined to be a State actor as a result of the services they provide on behalf of a government. These entities could be adoption agencies, shelters, or other service providers operated by a religious organization under contract with a city or State.
Across the country, people of faith serve their neighbors and their communities through these charitable efforts, but this bill could force them to abandon their faith or abandon the service. That is an unacceptable outcome in the United States.
For years, the Democrats have been playing a dangerous game with the Court. They want Americans to believe that the Court lacks transparency and struggles with its ethics. That is simply not true.
This bill is simply the latest installment of the Democrat's campaign to intimidate the highest court in our land. They have engaged in a smear campaign against sitting Justices and nominees. Democrats have stood on the steps of the Court and threatened Justices by name for not ruling the way they want in high-profile cases. Democrat members of the Judiciary Committee, including the chairman, have introduced a bill to pack the Court; to add four Justices to our highest court--not one, not two, not three, but four, because they simply want to take it over.
Democrats have held hearings to showcase fringe legal and conspiracy theories about the Court and its rulings.
In fact, later today, the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to again suggest that the Court has somehow been compromised based on a totally unsubstantiated allegation that Justice Alito leaked information 8 years ago about an opinion in the Hobby Lobby case.
There is just one problem: Justice Alito denies this allegation. The individual who allegedly was the conduit for the leak denies it ever happened. Even the media admits there are holes in the story.
Politico said this:
We spent several months attempting to corroborate the allegation but was unable to locate anyone who heard about the decision directly from Alito or his wife before the release of the case.
The New York Times reported that there are ``gaps'' in the allegation. The New York Times is the one who broke the story. They reported there are gaps in this allegation about a leak from Justice Alito 8 years ago. Gaps in an allegation.
Do you know what that is? That is liberal-speak for that story doesn't add up. But the Democrats are determined to not let the truth get in the way of their story and their intimidation tactics on the Court.
This is not the way we are supposed to operate. I hope that we can vote this bill down. I hope it does not pass because I think it is dangerous and takes the country in the wrong direction.
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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I would just first say, the previous speaker talked about being out of step with the American people.
Are you kidding me?
The Democrats are the party who think men can use women's restrooms; the Democrats are the party who think boys can participate in girls' sports; the Democrats are the party who think you can take the life of an unborn child right up until their birthday; and the Democrats are the party who actually had a witness in committee who said that she thought men could get pregnant.
And we are the ones who are out of step?
You have got to be kidding me.
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Mr. JORDAN.
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, what happened in Colorado, as the gentleman referenced, was wrong as wrong could be. We all understand that.
But you know what else is wrong?
The 100 churches and crisis pregnancy centers that were attacked in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision--actually, when the leak happened. Dozens and dozens of those attacks happened between the leak of the opinion and the opinion itself, all designed to intimidate the Supreme Court.
And what did this body do while that was happening and Supreme Court Justices' homes were being--protests, harassed, all kinds of things said about their family, an assassination attempt on one of those justices, Justice Kavanaugh--what did this body do?
They waited a month to pass legislation to give our highest court members the protection they needed. This body did that.
There is no place for violence. But let's be clear: Let's condemn all of it. Let's do what we can to protect against it, and let's not stay on this concerted effort to intimidate the Court.
By the way, Madam Speaker, we have yet to have a hearing on the leak of the Dobbs decision, but in 1 hour and 15 minutes we are going to have a hearing on the fake leak that was brought up about Justice Alito in the Hobby Lobby case.
Why can't we get to the bottom of what happened earlier this year with the Dobbs decision that resulted in all that violence--over 100 churches and crisis pregnancy centers attacked?
I would like to have a hearing on that. I hope at some point the chairman will--we will look into doing that next year when we convene the new Congress.
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
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Mr. JORDAN. Reclaiming my time, the fact is, the Senate passed the bill and you guys waited a month before we passed it on the House floor, and you know that is accurate.
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Mr. JORDAN. Justices' families; I will correct that. But you guys waited a month to do that when they were being threatened. That is my point.
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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I would urge a ``no'' vote based on arguments we have made on the floor today. I think this is--I just urge a ``no'' vote. I think this is the wrong way to go.
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 258, nays 169, answered ``present'' 1, not voting 4, as follows: [Roll No. 513] YEAS--258 Adams Aguilar Allred Armstrong Auchincloss Axne Bacon Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Calvert Cammack Carbajal Cardenas Carey Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cheney Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crow Cuellar Curtis Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Davis, Rodney Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Emmer Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gimenez Golden Gomez Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Herrera Beutler Higgins (NY) Himes Hinson Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Issa Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jacobs (NY) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Joyce (OH) Kahele Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Mace Malinowski Malliotakis Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McGovern McNerney Meeks Meijer Meng Mfume Miller-Meeks Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newhouse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Obernolte Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Peltola Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (NY) Ryan (OH) Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Simpson Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stefanik Steil Stevens Stewart Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Upton Valadao Vargas Veasey Velazquez Wagner Waltz Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NAYS--169 Aderholt Allen Amodei Arrington Babin Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Conway Crawford Crenshaw Davidson DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fleischmann Flood Flores Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gibbs Gohmert Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrell Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hudson Huizenga Jackson Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (PA) Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Norman Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reschenthaler Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sempolinski Sessions Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Steube Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Van Drew Van Duyne Walberg Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--1 Owens NOT VOTING--4 Brady Hollingsworth Kinzinger Zeldin
Ms. LEE of California changed her vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to concur was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The motion to reconsider is laid on the table. members recorded pursuant to house resolution 8, 117th congress Axne (Pappas) Baird (Bucshon) Bass (Cicilline) Beatty (Neguse) Brooks (Fleischmann) DeFazio (Pallone) Doyle, Michael F. (Pallone) Gibbs (Smucker) Gohmert (Weber (TX)) Gonzalez (OH) (Moore (UT)) Gosar (Weber (TX)) Hayes (Neguse) Herrera Beutler (Stewart) Huffman (Levin (CA)) Jacobs (NY) (Sempolinski) Johnson (LA) (Graves (LA)) Johnson (OH) (Fulcher) Johnson (TX) (Pallone) Kahele (Correa) Kildee (Pappas) Kirkpatrick (Pallone) Lawrence (Garcia (TX)) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lieu (Beyer) Long (Fleischmann) Meeks (Meng) Napolitano (Correa) Newman (Correa) O'Halleran (Pappas) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Pascrell (Pallone) Payne (Pallone) Peltola (Correa) Pressley (Neguse) Ruppersberger (Sarbanes) Rush (Beyer) Simpson (Fulcher) Sires (Pallone) Suozzi (Cicilline) Swalwell (Correa) Titus (Pallone) Welch (Pallone) Wexton (Beyer) Williams (GA) (McBath) Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
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