Defense of Marriage Act

by Jeremy Leaming

As widely expected the U.S. Supreme Court will wade into the battle for marriage equality announcing today it would consider the constitutionality of state and federal bars against same-sex marriage.

The New York Times’ Adam Liptak noted that the Court’s docket now includes a lot of cases centering on “the meaning of equality ….” The high court’s docket already includes cases involving race-conscious university admissions policies and an integral enforcement provision of the Voting Rights Act.

The high court will review a decision striking California’s Proposition 8, which yanked marriage equality rights from lesbians and gay men in the state, and an opinion from a federal appeals court that invalidated a provision of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that California’s Proposition 8 “served no purpose and no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians.” Writing for the majority, Judge Stephen Reinhardt said, “Proposition 8 worked a singular and limited change to the California Constitution: it stripped same-sex couples of the right to have their committed relationships recognized by the State with the designation of ‘marriage,’ which the state constitution had previously guaranteed them, while leaving in place all their other rights and responsibilities as partners – rights and responsibilities that are identical of those married spouses and form an integral part of the marriage relationship.”

The high court also said it would review U.S. v. Windsor, a case out of the Second Circuit. Earlier in the fall, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit invalidated a provision of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, a law enacted by the Clinton administration. The Obama administration announced earlier in its first term that it would stop defending DOMA in court. The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives intervened to help defend DOMA.

by Jeremy Leaming

The blatantly discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, a Clinton era law, is unconstitutional, says another federal court judge. The decision also marks another step forward for marriage equality, which is part of a much wider movement advancing equality for the LGBT community.

As TPM reports, U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa L. Bryant, appointed to the bench by George W. Bush, said DOMA, recognizing only marriages between opposite-sex couples, violates “the equal protection principles incorporated in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

In a lengthy opinion, Judge Bryant explored court precedent on the rights of lesbians and gay men, noting in part that a “long history of discrimination against homosexuals is widely acknowledged in American jurisprudence, including the United States Supreme Court jurisprudence. Many courts have concluded that homosexuals have suffered a long and significant history of purposeful discrimination.”

“In sum,” Bryant continued, “the evidence in the record detailing the long history of anti-gay discrimination which evolved from conduct-based proscriptions to status or identity-based proscriptions perpetrated by federal, state and local governments as well as private parties amply demonstrates that homosexuals have suffered a long history of invidious discrimination. Moreover this conclusion is consistent with the majority of cases which have meaningfully considered the question and likewise held that homosexuals as a class have experienced a long history of discrimination.”