Big news on marriage

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I haven't read them yet, but there are two new District Court decisions invalidating provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act. From Talking Points Memo:

Judge Joseph Tauro, of U.S. District Court in Boston, issued rulings on two separate cases today.

“This court has determined that it is clearly within the authority of the Commonwealth to recognize same-sex marriages among its residents, and to afford those individuals in same-sex marriages any benefits, rights, and privileges to which they are entitled by virtue of their marital status,” Tauro wrote in the decision for Massachusetts v. Health and Human Services.

“The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state, and, in doing so, offends the Tenth Amendment. For that reason, the statute is invalid,” he wrote.

In the other case, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Tauro ruled that DOMA violates the equal protection principles in the Fifth Amendment

Taken together with the decision this week of the governor of Hawaii to veto civil unions, this seems to be another very important step in the direction of marriage equality. (What's the connection? The decision in Hawaii suggests that civil unions are not a sufficient alternative.)

Of course, there are many months and many hundreds of pages of briefing before these cases are resolved, but it sounds like a big step.

It's also a response to people who are opposing state marriage laws because they won't have any effect on federal benefits.

5 thoughts on “Big news on marriage”

  1. The word on the street now is Obama US Attorney expected to stand behind federal gay marriage ban, plaintiffs say.

    Raw Story reports:

    The word on the street now is Obama US Attorney expected to stand behind federal gay marriage ban, plaintiffs say.

    “The gay rights law group that convinced a federal district court judge Thursday to strike down a federal ban on gay marriage has told the New York Times they “fully expect” the Justice Department to appeal the decision — a move that could shatter Obama’s image in the gay community and cost his party millions of dollars in donations from gay donors.”

    I think Pam Spaulding, of Pam’s House Blend summed up Obama’s situation best.

    [Obama] has repeatedly said that DOMA is discriminatory, actually believes it is also Constitutional. This administration has been keeping its head in the sand on this one for quite some time, as if it didn’t notice the handful of marriage cases winding their way to the Obama DOJ.

    And now it doesn’t really matter what he believes in theory; this President is going to have to make a choice — have his DOJ defend DOMA in court (using the “I have to” defense), or decline to defend. Either way, there’s no way to hide, no way to split the baby, pick your metaphor. He can expect a sh*tstorm from the LGBT community of epic proportions if appealed, and the right wing could have an issue to harp on if the DOJ declines.

    Sigh….

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