Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah
will reintroduce a bill next year that aims to undermine the Supreme
Court's 2015 finding that gay and lesbian couples have a
constitutional right to marry.
The First Amendment Defense Act (FADA)
seeks to bar federal “discriminatory action” against people and
corporations who oppose marriage equality based on a “religious
belief or moral conviction.”
Lee and Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador first
introduced FADA in 2015, but the bill stalled in Congress.
“Hopefully
November's results will give us the momentum we need to get this done
next year,” Lee's spokesman, Conn Carroll, told BuzzFeed
News.
On the campaign trail, President-elect
Donald Trump pledged to sign the bill if elected, saying it was
needed to protect “the deeply held religious beliefs of Catholics
and the beliefs of Americans of all faiths.”
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a co-sponsor of
the legislation, said that the “prospects for protecting religious
freedom are brighter now than they have been in a long time.”