The U.S. Senate passed legislation to enshrine federal protection for same-sex marriages with a bipartisan vote that dramatically demonstrates the massive cultural shift in the U.S. on the issue.
The 61-36 vote on Tuesday was a victory for Democrats who’ve raised concerns that the conservative-leaning Supreme Court could overturn a 2015 ruling that established the right to same-sex marriage.
"It’s a scary but necessary acknowledgment that despite all the progress we made, the constitutional right to same-sex marriage is not even a decade old and exists only by the virtue of a very narrow 5-4 Supreme Court decision,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. "And we all know the court has changed since that decision. As we have already seen this year what the court has decided in the past can be easily taken away in the future.”