Dead law walking
Feb. 23rd, 2011 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumDOMA has been on the ropes for a while. The trend in the courts has been against it for some time. Last July the US District Court in Mass. dealt a couple of body blows to the law, when it ruled, "In the wake of DOMA, it is only sexual orientation that differentiates a married couple entitled to federal marriage-based benefits from one not so entitled. And this court can conceive of no way in which such a difference might be relevant to the provision of the benefits at issue. By premising eligibility for these benefits on marital status in the first instance, the federal government signals to this court that the relevant distinction to be drawn is between married individuals and unmarried individuals. To further divide the class of married individuals into those with spouses of the same sex and those with spouses of the opposite sex is to create a distinction without meaning. And where, as here, “there is no reason to believe that the disadvantaged class is different, in relevant respects” from a similarly situated class, this court may conclude that it is only irrational prejudice that motivates the challenged classification. As irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest, this court must hold that Section 3 of DOMA as applied to Plaintiffs violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The full opinion in GILL & LETOURNEAU v OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT brings the sad, and pathetic, history of the DOMA out into the light. It wasn't about "protecting marriage," it was about letting homosexuals have the same rights as straights.
On that basis it, like laws against inter-racial, interfaith, inter-anything marriage, deserves to be chucked.
The DoJ today said that there is no real hope for DOMA, because they won't defend it. It may take a plaintiff in each district to challenge it, but it will fall.
The folks opposed to it have no hope. The Supreme Court can't, if it is to be honest, uphold it. Should someone who loses be foolish enough to petition the SCOTUS, they will be arguing that a law the feds are not defending, which the DoJ has determined to have fatal constitutional flaws, "Section 3 of DOMA has now been challenged in the Second Circuit, however, which has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated. In these cases, the Administration faces for the first time the question of whether laws regarding sexual orientation are subject to the more permissive standard of review or whether a more rigorous standard, under which laws targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination are viewed with suspicion by the courts, should apply.
After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases.
That is the DoJ getting ready to throw in the towel.
The challenge to Prop 8 in Calif. continues.
New Mexico says there is nothing to invalidate legal marriages of same-sex couples who move there.
Maryland is about to pass a law legalising same-sex marriages.
Rhode Island looks to be likely to do the same.
Massachusetts has yet to see the horrors of man on dog/duck/goat/pig/box turtle love Rick Santorum, John Cornyn, Bill O'Reilly, and Jimmy Swaggart rail against whenever the subject comes up.
In short, the fight is getting close to the final bell, and DOMA is going to lose. It may be a TKO, but a win's a win.
The full opinion in GILL & LETOURNEAU v OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT brings the sad, and pathetic, history of the DOMA out into the light. It wasn't about "protecting marriage," it was about letting homosexuals have the same rights as straights.
On that basis it, like laws against inter-racial, interfaith, inter-anything marriage, deserves to be chucked.
The DoJ today said that there is no real hope for DOMA, because they won't defend it. It may take a plaintiff in each district to challenge it, but it will fall.
The folks opposed to it have no hope. The Supreme Court can't, if it is to be honest, uphold it. Should someone who loses be foolish enough to petition the SCOTUS, they will be arguing that a law the feds are not defending, which the DoJ has determined to have fatal constitutional flaws, "Section 3 of DOMA has now been challenged in the Second Circuit, however, which has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated. In these cases, the Administration faces for the first time the question of whether laws regarding sexual orientation are subject to the more permissive standard of review or whether a more rigorous standard, under which laws targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination are viewed with suspicion by the courts, should apply.
After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases.
That is the DoJ getting ready to throw in the towel.
The challenge to Prop 8 in Calif. continues.
New Mexico says there is nothing to invalidate legal marriages of same-sex couples who move there.
Maryland is about to pass a law legalising same-sex marriages.
Rhode Island looks to be likely to do the same.
Massachusetts has yet to see the horrors of man on dog/duck/goat/pig/box turtle love Rick Santorum, John Cornyn, Bill O'Reilly, and Jimmy Swaggart rail against whenever the subject comes up.
In short, the fight is getting close to the final bell, and DOMA is going to lose. It may be a TKO, but a win's a win.
