Obama: DOMA Unconstitutional, Orders DOJ to Stop Defending Against Legal Challenges

At last, at last! President Obama has indicated he believes a part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional and has ordered the Department of Justice to stop defending the law when it is challenged in court. Slate reports:

According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the president decided that DOMA's Section 3, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, "violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment." There are two lawsuits against the provision pending now, and Holder notified House Speaker John Boehner Wednesday that the Justice Department won't be defending them. According to the National Review, the government defended the law as recently as January, arguing "against a ruling that said it violated the rights of states to set their own marriage policies."

Absolutely wonderful news in terms of the likelihood of American same-sex couples gaining the kind of full marriage equality under civil law that's increasingly available all over the world, but only in a few states here. Unfortunately, President Obama apparently felt it necessary to continue to publicly reject those rights on a personal basis:

But White House Spokesman Jay Carney said today that Obama's legal opinion is "distinct" from Obama's own personal view of gay marriage. "The presidents personal view on same sex marriage I think you have all heard him discuss," Carney told reporters. "That is distinct from this legal decision."

That said, this decision is a powerful reversal of policy on the part of the Obama administration:

The new filing amounts to a reversal for the Justice Department. In June of 2009, the Obama Administration filed briefs defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. The filing ignited a firestorm of criticism from the gay-rights community, which culminated in a series of White House announcements on gay rights in the federal workforce.

Evan Wolfson, President and Founder of Freedom to Marry, the campaign to win marriage nationwide, has this response:

Freedom to Marry applauds the President and the Attorney General for acknowledging that sexual orientation discrimination has no place in American life and must be presumed unconstitutional, recognizing that discriminatory laws like so-called DOMA must be looked at with skeptical eyes, not rubber stamped.  

 

The Administration today acknowledges that there is no legitimate reason for this discrimination and therefore it cannot be defended under the Constitution. This a momentous step forward toward Freedom to Marry's goal of ending federal marriage discrimination and fully protecting all loving and committed couples.

According to a San Francisco Chronicle article, the law is the last major federal statute that openly discriminates against LGBT folks, following the repeal late last year of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) ban on gays in the military. Both laws were signed by former President bill Clinton and crafted by a GOP-led Congress during the culture wars of the 1990s.

The move has immediate consequences only in the District of Columbia and five states that allow same-sex marriage: Massachusetts, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut, and to the roughly 18,000 couples whose legal marriages in California were grandfathered in before the Prop. 8 voter initiative took effect in 2008 to ban same-sex marriage.

"It's a development -- a momentus and historic development -- that the Justice Department will no longer defend the statute," said Fred Sainz, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. "But there is still a very long road ahead of us to make these lawsuits successful and eventually get the statute off the books."

You can read Attorney General Holder's full statement here.

Take that, right-wing purveyors of prejudice and bigotry in the New Mexico Legislature! Just last week, the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee tabled three DOMA-related bills sponsored by Rep. Nora Espinoza (R-Roswell) and Rep. David Chavez (R-Los Lunas). State Sen. William Sharer has also sponsored a DOMA bill this year, but no action has yet been taken on the legislation.