South Dakota’s lone congressman voted against a House bill to codify same-sex and interracial marriage.
The bill passed with bipartisan support. Forty-seven Republicans joined 220 Democrats to advance the legislation to the Senate.
Johnson joins 157 other Republicans who voted against the measure.
The bill is a reaction to language in a recent Supreme Court opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas, who suggested the court should re-examine past decisions on same-sex marriage and contraception.
“Access to contraception and gay marriage aren’t going anywhere,” Johnson said in an emailed statement. “The bills the Democrat majority put on the floor this week, though, are rushed, overreaching attempts to play politics, and I can’t support them.”
That sentiment is echoed by South Dakota’s senior U.S. senator, Republican John Thune.
“I don’t see anything behind this right now other than, you know, election-year politics,” Thune told PBS.
The language from Justice Thomas came in the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned the constitutional right to abortion access.
SDPB News also recently asked South Dakota's junior senator, Republican Mike Rounds, if Congress should codify same-sex marriage rights and contraception access. Rounds said Thomas was alone in his opinion on those issues.
“I think the fact that it was 8 to 1 in opposition to his message suggests that the court would not take it up,” Rounds said. “So, at this stage of the game I think the consistency of 8 to 1 is probably the stronger message out there.”
In 2006, South Dakota voters approved a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage. “Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in South Dakota,” it reads. That provision is currently invalidated by a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that guarantees the right of same-sex couples to marry.
As recently as 2020, one Republican lawmaker introduced a bill that would not permit “any form of marriage that does not involve a man and a woman.”
Republican Rep. Tony Randolph, a member of a legislative group called the “Freedom Caucus,” withdrew the bill shortly before a deadline for legislation to get a hearing.
