Senators approved a procedural vote on Monday on a bill that would codify same-sex marriage rights nationwide.
The bill could get final Senate approval on Tuesday.
Monday’s procedural vote had the support of 12 Republicans. All 49 present Democrats also voted in favor.
Once it passes the Senate, it will go to the House for final approval.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that states must allow same-sex couples the opportunity to wed, there have been concerns that the Supreme Court might revisit that ruling.
The concerns came following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade earlier this year.
Democrats say there is a possibility that the conservative Supreme Court could reverse same-sex and interracial marriage and contraception rights at the national level the same way it overturned Roe v. Wade, which includes leaving the question of legal abortions to the various U.S. states.
Writing the majority opinion in the abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the Supreme Court should revisit past cases.
“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” Thomas wrote.
While a simple majority is all that’s needed for the bill to pass the House, 10 Republican senators had to join Democrats to overcome a filibuster. The bill got support from those who previously opposed same-sex marriages, including Sen. Mitt Romney.
“While I believe in traditional marriage, Obergefell is and has been the law of the land upon which LGBTQ individuals have relied,” Romney said. “This legislation provides certainty to many LGBTQ Americans, and it signals that Congress—and I—esteem and love all of our fellow Americans equally.”
