 Critics suggest that the law, if enacted, could be used by hospitals to turn away patients, restaurants to refuse to serve, and to remove students from school and compared it to Jim Crow laws.The Virginia Christian Alliance emphasized its position that the bill is critical to clergy and that they "fear for their job" if the bill should fail.In 2004, Marshall was the chief patron of the "Affirmation of Marriage Act" (HB751), which declared "the Commonwealth of Virginia is under no constitutional or legal obligation to recognize a marriage, civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement purporting to bestow any of the privileges or obligations of marriage under the laws of another state or territory of the United States unless such marriage conforms to the laws of this Commonwealth."