Republican Sen. Mike Lee To Reintroduce Bill That Protects Gay Marriage Foes
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | December 14, 2016
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.”