The rights of traditionally married couples will not be afforded to same-sex couples who, beginning Sunday, will be allowed to marry in New York. Why they should or should not be was debated Wednesday in a hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary which Sen. Charles E. Schumer said was to examine the real life impact of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act on same-sex couples.
Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 (DOMA) should be ruled unconstitutional because it oversteps the power granted to Congress under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution. DOMA section 2 allows individual states to refuse recognition to same-sex marriages regarded as valid in another state. This provision represents the first case in which Congress has attempted to restrict full faith and credit.
More than a week after a top Atlanta law firm dropped the contract to defend the federal marriage statute under pressure from gay groups, the legal and public relations fallout shows no signs of easing. In addition to losing one of its top lawyers in protest, King & Spalding has lost at least two high-profile clients, while its decision to cancel its contract with the House of Representatives to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has sparked a lively debate in the nation's law schools and on legal blogs.
At the request of President Barack Obama, the Department of Justice has announced that it will no longer defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act against legal challenges. Previously, President Obama had espoused a policy of seeking to repeal the 1996 law via legislation while still defending its constitutionality when challenged.
Vermont's passage of a civil union statute in 2000 set the stage for ensuing controversy surrounding the ability of sister states to legally recognize and/or dissolve the unions under their own laws and the ability of third-parties to challenge the validity of the unions beyond the borders of Vermont. As a result, some states have either granted or are preparing to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples, while other states have denied or are preparing to deny such recognition. Central to the determination of these issues is the applicability of the 1996 Federal Defense of Marriage Act, and the various state defense of marriage acts that were subsequently enacted, to same-sex civil unions. Iowa is positioned at the forefront of this debate with the Iowa Supreme Court's recent decisi...
As a candidate, Barack Obama supported repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the misguided federal legislation that in 1996 attempted to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. DOMA, as the act became known, let the federal government as well as any state deny marriage status and marriage benefits to gay couples who tie the knot in states that allow gay marriage. Now three years into his term, President Obama has rightly taken a long- overdue step to rid the nation of the DOMA assault on human rights and equal protection. The president has instructed the U.S. Justice Department to stop defending the law in federal court. A U.S. district judge in Massachusetts has ruled DOMA unconstitutional because it interferes with a state's right to define marriage and denies m...
There's a lawsuit that is itching to be filed this week and we hope one -- or more -- of the couples marrying under New York's new same-sex marriage statute will file it. The problem is this. While gay and lesbian couples are now legally entitled to marry in New York, their rights under federal law will be significantly less than those accorded to heterosexual married couples. Because of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, for example, employer-paid health benefits are considered taxable income for gay couples, while they are not taxable for straight couples. The cost to gay couples averages $1,069 a year, according to Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.
We are appalled by criticism that the Federal Marriage Amendment, endorsed by the President, is -- as The New York Times asserted editorially -- 'putting bias in the Constitution,'" the pro- marriage leaders wrote. "Gay marriage has never been a constitutional right in America or any other civilized nation. No ones wants to 'take away' some supposed right. It is the rogue judges who are trying to create a new right. The leaders contend the foresight of the 85 U.S. senators and 342 members of Congress who voted for the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 accurately represented the current opinion of the majority of Americans on the subject of same-sex marriage.
Attorneys for the House of Representatives this week asked a federal court to throw out a case against the Defense of Marriage Act, saying the 1996 law is both constitutional and rational. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1972 "that two men .. had no constitutional right to marry each other," and this "binding" precedent "supports DOMA's constitutionality," Paul D Clement and colleagues said in their Aug. 15 briefs in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
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