It is about time. After reading the document I was of two minds. Firstly what took the President and the Attorney General so long? The second, is that the document justifying their actions was so well written and complete with all the “I”s dotted and the “t ”s crossed. It is sad that removing the codification of hate and discrimination requires this much labor to address.
My only beef is the President as usual is extremely methodical and cautious in continuing to enforce the law. In that light it seems he could have reached this point much earlier.
We need to ensure gays and every other minority is guaranteed their rights. We have real problems and as such issues of prejudice seem petty as it distracts from the work we need to do to get the country moving forward. The middle class is being squeezed by corporations and our oligarchy and these issues are simply used to distract as we know unless it is brought up in certain venues no one lives their lives thinking how best to discriminate.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
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Obama: DOMA Unconstitutional, DOJ Should Stop Defending In Court
WASHINGTON — In a major policy reversal, the Obama administration said Wednesday it will no longer defend the constitutionality of a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage.
Attorney General Eric Holder said President Barack Obama has concluded that the administration cannot defend the federal law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman. He noted that the congressional debate during passage of the Defense of Marriage Act "contains numerous expressions reflecting moral disapproval of gays and lesbians and their intimate and family relationships – precisely the kind of stereotype-based thinking and animus the (Constitution’s)Equal Protection Clause is designed to guard against."
The Justice Department had defended the act in court until now.
"Much of the legal landscape has changed in the 15 years since Congress passed" the Defense of Marriage Act, Holder said in a statement. He noted that the Supreme Court has ruled that laws criminalizing homosexual conduct are unconstitutional and that Congress has repealed the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy.
At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said Obama himself is still "grappling" with his personal view of gay marriage but has always personally opposed the Defense of Marriage Act as "unnecessary and unfair."
Holder wrote to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that Obama has concluded the Defense of Marriage Act fails to meet a rigorous standard under which courts view with suspicion any laws targeting minority groups who have suffered a history of discrimination.
The attorney general said the Justice Department had defended the law in court until now because the government was able to advance reasonable arguments for the law based on a less strict standard.
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At a December news conference, in response to a reporters’ question, Obama revealed that his position on gay marriage is "constantly evolving." He has opposed such marriages and supported instead civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. The president said such civil unions are his baseline – at this point, as he put it.
"This is something that we’re going to continue to debate, and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward," he said.
On Wednesday, Holder said the president has concluded that, given a documented history of discrimination against gays, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny than the department had been applying in legal challenges to the act up to now.
The attorney general said the department will immediately bring the policy change to the attention of two federal courts now hearing separate lawsuits targeting the Defense of Marriage Act.
Obama: DOMA Unconstitutional, DOJ Should Stop Defending In Court