Respect for Marriage Act

Respect for Marriage Act

Amends the Defense of Marriage Act to repeal a provision that prohibited a state, territory, possession, or Indian tribe from being required to recognize any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other state, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a same sex marriage.

Amends the federal rules of construction added by such Act concerning the definitions of "marriage" and "spouse" to provide that, for purposes of any federal law in which marital status is a factor, an individual shall be considered married if that individual's marriage is valid in the state where the marriage was entered into or, in the case of a marriage entered into outside any state, if the marriage is valid in the place where entered into and the marriage could have been entered into in a state. Removes the definition of "spouse" (currently, a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife).

[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 29 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 29

  To repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for State 
                        regulation of marriage.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 6, 2015

 Mrs. Feinstein (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Blumenthal, 
   Mr. Booker, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Brown, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Cardin, Mr. 
Carper, Mr. Casey, Mr. Coons, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Franken, Mrs. Gillibrand, 
   Mr. Heinrich, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Kaine, Mr. King, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. 
   Leahy, Mr. Markey, Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Merkley, Ms. 
Mikulski, Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Peters, Mr. Reed, Mr. Reid, Mr. 
   Sanders, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Schumer, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. 
  Tester, Mr. Udall, Mr. Warner, Ms. Warren, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. 
Wyden) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for State 
                        regulation of marriage.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Respect for Marriage Act''.

SEC. 2. REPEAL OF SECTION ADDED TO TITLE 28, UNITED STATES CODE, BY 
              SECTION 2 OF THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT.

    Section 1738C of title 28, United States Code, is repealed, and the 
table of sections at the beginning of chapter 115 of title 28, United 
States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to that section.

SEC. 3. MARRIAGE RECOGNITION.

    Section 7 of title 1, United States Code, is amended to read as 
follows:
``Sec. 7. Marriage
    ``(a) For the purposes of any Federal law in which marital status 
is a factor, an individual shall be considered married if that 
individual's marriage is valid in the State where the marriage was 
entered into or, in the case of a marriage entered into outside any 
State, if the marriage is valid in the place where entered into and the 
marriage could have been entered into in a State.
    ``(b) In this section, the term `State' means a State, the District 
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or 
possession of the United States.''.
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