DOMA is dead spaketh the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Conservative efforts to do things have a way of backfiring – rather than leaving things vague, the attempt to bring clarity to the law just lobs up a softball for judges to hit out of the park.<\/p>\n
Defense Of Marriage Act was a Federal power grab to try to Federalize the rules for a legal marriage, something that has always been a state function, with different rules about age on consent, parental permission for minors, who is excluded from marrying (close relatives, etc)<\/p>\n
DOMA was pushed through to establish a federal definition that marriage is between one man and one woman. Without DOMA, legal battles would have gone on in 50 states, and attempts to impose gay marriage in Federal courts would have largely been dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction. Introduce DOMA, and now federal courts can get involved, and just decided that gay marriage can’t be treated differently than other types of marriages.<\/p>\n
Why is the Federal government involved? Because historically it was deemed that protecting couples involved in raising children was an important public policy – like providing social security payments to the widow of a man who dies, not to provide checks to a gay man who “marries” an HIV patient a week before he dies.<\/p>\n
Look for the law in general, and businesses to now stop giving benefits and protections to spouses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOMA is dead spaketh the Supreme Court. Conservative efforts to do things have a way of backfiring – rather than leaving things vague, the attempt to bring clarity to the law just lobs up a softball for judges to hit … Continue reading