The Senate passed a bill to protect same-sex marriages

U.S. senators on Tuesday passed a bill protecting federal recognition of same-sex marriages. The passage was prompted by concerns that the Supreme Court might overturn a 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The narrowly tailored bill, which requires the federal government to recognize a marriage if it was legal in the state in which it was performed, is meant to protect against a possible Supreme Court ban on same-sex marriage.

However, it would not prevent states from banning same-sex marriages if the Supreme Court allows them to do so.

The bill would give “millions of same-sex and interracial same-sex couples certainty and certainty that their marriages are valid and will remain valid into the future,” Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin, one of those who pushed for the legislative initiative, said Tuesday before the bill passed.

Baldwin became the first openly homosexual member of the Senate in U.S. history.

A similar but not identical bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year with the support of 47 Republicans and all Democrats. The House will need to approve the Senate version before it is sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Steny Hoyer, the “No. 2 Democrat” in the House, told reporters Tuesday that the House is likely to consider the Senate version of the bill as early as next week.

In June, the Supreme Court struck down a nationwide abortion right, overturning a 50-year-old precedent.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas soon wrote that the court should consider overturning other decisions protecting individual freedoms, including a 2015 ruling on same-sex marriage.

According to the Census Bureau, there are about 568,000 married same-sex couples in the United States.