U.S. House passes same-sex marriage protections bill. Why Rep. Buddy Carter voted 'no'

The Tuesday passage of a U.S. House bill that would codify protections for same sex and interracial marriage was not aided by 1st District Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Pooler).

The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, know by the acronym DOMA and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. DOMA was already ruled unconstitutional due to the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015, invalidating the law and its enforcement.

House Democrats are pushing to protect other rights they believe were left vulnerable following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last month. In that decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that the court should take up other precedent setting cases, and mentioned Obergefell by name.

"In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell," Thomas wrote, referring to decisions on contraception and same-sex relationships.

Thomas is a Chatham County native.

The Democrat controlled House voted 267-157 in favor of the bill, which included 47 Republicans voting in favor. Carter joined the other Republican members of the Georgia delegation is voting against the measure.

He said Wednesday that the bill was a distraction from more pressing issues, calling same-sex marriage, a right that has been guaranteed since 2015's Obergefell v Hodges Supreme Court ruling, "settled law," despite Thomas' hopes of revisiting the case.

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"I'm not interested in playing these games that Democrats want to play. This is settled law. This is not something we need to be codifying in the legislature. The Supreme Court's already made a decision about this," Carter said. "This was nothing more than than the Democrats trying to fear monger, if you will, with social issues, trying to undermine the Supreme Court, and that's not good legislation. That's not a good use of our time."

Asked directly if he thought same sex marriage should be legal in the United States, Carter said he deferred to the Supreme Court on the matter.

The Respect for Marriage Act was expected to pass the House, but the 50-50 Senate is a different story. Senate Republicans are expected to join a filibuster to block the bill, and the Democrats would need to pull at least 10 Republicans to vote to end a filibuster debate and hold a vote, something they’ve struggled to do on most legislation.

GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the Supreme Court's decision protecting marriage equality was "clearly wrong" last weekend, but also noted he doesn’t expect the Supreme Court to revisit Obergefell.

Many House Republicans criticized the bill as political theater, making note of other pressing issues like inflation, crime and high gas prices, but wouldn’t go as far as attacking gay or interracial marriage outright. In his comments, Carter didn’t stray far from the party line.

"People aren't interested in that. What they're interested in is the real crises that are going on in this country right now: the price of gas, the price of groceries, inflation. They're interested in the southern border, and the drugs that are infesting our communities, they're interested in crime in our cities, and how we're going to prevent that," Carter said. "Those are the issues that we should be concentrating up here in Washington, DC, and not trying to deflect interest and attention, like the Democrats are trying to do, on these kinds of social issues."

Carter noted that Thomas was the only justice to explicitly indicate the Court could revisit same-sex marriage. The majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the case that led to the Roe v. Wade reversal, states that "nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion."

The RFMA initially only included same sex marriages, but interracial marriages were added to the latest iteration, aiming to protect Loving v. Virginia, the case that secured interracial marriage as a constitutional right in 1967.

Thomas, who is in an interracial marriage, did not mention the case his opinion.

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Savannah Pride Center Chairperson Dusty Church said he was unsurprised by Carter's vote, but said the bill aimed at repealing DOMA was "important." Church isn't confident the Senate will be able to pass the bill.

"It's important. And frankly, regardless of Supreme Court, it should have been done a long time ago. It's absurd that we would even have laws remaining on the books that have not been repealed that would prevent interracial couples or gay couples from marriage," Church said.

Church said since the overturning of Roe, he's been talking to people in same-sex marriages, helping them make worst-case scenario plans — up to leaving the country, — should same-sex marriage become criminalized.

"It's infuriating, frankly, and terrifying. The number of conversations I have had with folks the last month in our community, working out their action strategy, making plans for what they will do with their business, what they will do with the family where they will move, if they'll leave the country, what they will have to do, rather than face the realities facing their marriage and made a criminal for their basic existence," Church said. "It's very, very frustrating and scary.

Carter is running for re-election this November, and his opponent, Savannah lawyer Wade Herring, released a statement on Carter’s nay vote on Wednesday.

“The Respect for Marriage Act is a positive step to protect fundamental human rights. We cannot return to a time when marriages were banned because of race or sex. We are a diverse nation, with widely differing views and belief systems, but I remain convinced that we can find a way to live together as neighbors in our democracy,” Herring’s statement read in part.

Will Peebles is the enterprise reporter for Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at wpeebles@gannett.com and @willpeeblessmn on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Buddy Carter voted no on bill to protect same-sex, interracial marriage