Obama has determined that section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional and has therefore asked the Justice Department to stop defending it in court. The law will still be enforced until reversed by Congress or definitively struck down by the courts, but the Obama administration now maintains that laws against gays and lesbians must henceforth be viewed under the lens of a heightened scrutiny test.
From Towleroad, which has a lot of coverage on these issues:
Attorney General Eric Holder has just released a statement regarding the Justice Department's defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), saying that President Obama "has concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet "a heightened standard of scrutiny" and is therefore "unconstitutional."
Holder continues: "Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President’s determination."
The memo notes that the White House is not ending enforcement of DOMA, just its defense in court. Congress must repeal the law or a court must rule in one of the pending cases for enforcement to change.
Awesome news!!
Once again, Obama shows how he can be a true leader when it comes to gays’ and lesbians’ equality and civil rights.
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