Administration will no longer defend DOMA

[ellid]

The Obama Administration has decided that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and will not defend it in court proceedings.*

This is marvelous news - DOMA is being challenged in several jurisdictions, and without the Department of Justice defending it, it will almost certainly be struck down as unconstitutional. Even better, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-California), who worked on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with Harvey Milk, has introduced a full repeal in the Senate.

In short, DOMA is going down. I'm pleased with this not only because the law is discriminatory against legally married same-sex couples from Massachusetts, Vermont, the District of Columbia, Iowa, etc., but because it's frankly ridiculous. Two men or two women getting married doesn't influence my life in the slightest, and my own marriage didn't end because of civil unions in Vermont or equal marriage in Massachusetts. If anything, marriage has been stronger here in Massachusetts over the past seven years, since we now have the lowest divorce rate in the country.

"The arc of history is long, but it is inclined toward justice."





*A talking point from DOMA supporters that has seemingly appeared overnight claims that the President has no right directing the Attorney General not to defend DOMA because this will somehow violate the Constitutional separation of powers, as the DOJ is part of the judiciary and thus not under the President's control. This is false. The Justice Department is part of the executive branch of government, which is headed by the President, and always has been. That's why Attorney General Holder is part of the Cabinet, for God's sake. Are people truly that ignorant of basic civics?

Comments

[lady-jade-01.livejournal.com]

Yes. In some cases, ignorant.

[jade-mushroom.livejournal.com]

excuse me while I do my happy dance.

[happy dance!!!]

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are. Civics are not being taught in schools anymore. I had to play catch up in law school like nobody's business.

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

Thanks for noting this. I saw this on the news last night, but the padawan kept yelling and grabbing for my attention, and it seemed like I could only hear every other word the reporter was saying, so I kept wondering, "Did she just say what I think she said? Does this mean what I think it means?" I got so pissed at the padawan that I yelled at him for making me miss the report.

Anyway. Good news!

[xrian.livejournal.com]

And you just know that even though said ignorant people are completely wrong, what they say is going to be repeated and repeated and repeated no matter how much anyone tries to explain it.

Forgive my pessimism (sigh).

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

That is indeed a remarkably ignorant thing to say, and the [original] people saying it probably know perfectly well that it isn't true. But truth is beside the point: what matters is what you can get millions of people to believe and repeat. In the case, the take-away for the True Believers is "The Obama administration cheerfully flouts the Constitution in order to pander to perverts, while having the hypocrisy to claim that DOMA itself is un-Constitutional." Once you've accepted that (which will take about a millisecond), picky details like the DOJ being part of the Executive Branch will have no effect on your worldview.

Some more reasonable and substantial objections to the DOJ's (in)action are raised here.