Coverage

News Coverage Surrounding DOMA:

Justices Show Reluctance for Broad Marriage Ruling

Source: The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—Two days of arguments on same-sex marriage revealed a Supreme Court uneasy about making sweeping moves on gay rights and holding doubts about whether the cases belonged before the justices at all.

The arguments also brought to life more familiar fissures between the court's liberal and conservative wings. On Wednesday, liberal justices suggested that a 1996 federal law denying benefits to lawfully married same-sex couples was motivated by animus against gays, while Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, challenged assertions that gays and lesbians need judicial protection from repressive majorities. Read More...

Current TV's 'Say Anything' Tackles DOMA With Judy Gold, David Mixner, Laverne Cox And Noah Michelson

Current TV's 'Joy Behar: Say Anything' featured a rousing discussion of the Supreme Court's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) hearing on March 27.

Guest host Judy Gold welcomed author and activist David Mixner, transgender activist, actress and producer Laverne Cox and HuffPost Gay Voices Editor Noah Michelson to the show for a recap of what happened in and outside the courtroom on Wednesday.

In the clip above, the panelists discuss Supreme Court Justice Alito's hesitance to address marriage equality because he believes it's a new institution that is "newer than cell phones or the Internet." Read More...

Edith Windsor: My late wife’s spirit was with us in court

Source: OutSmart Magazine

On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in my case challenging the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, widely known as DOMA. I was honored and humbled by the opportunity to have my case considered by our nation’s highest court. I have also been overwhelmed by the love and support I have received from people all across the country.

To be honest, I never could have imagined that this day would come — the day that I would be “out” as an 83-year-old lesbian suing the federal government. Read More...

Raw Politics explains why DOMA got wide support in 1996

Source: The Washington Post

During Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral argument over the Defense of Marriage Act, Chief Justice John G. Roberts was intent on getting one question answered from those seeking to overturn the law: were the politicians who passed the measure bigots?

As Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. explained that DOMA denies equal protection to gay Americans under the law since they are barred from getting married, Roberts pressed Verrilli on the point.

“So that was the view of the 84 senators who voted in favor of it and the president who signed it?” he asked. “They were motivated by animus?” Read More...

For Obama, Tricky Balancing Act in Enforcing Defense of Marriage Act

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — When President Obama decided that his administration would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, he was presented with an obvious question with a less obvious answer: Would he keep enforcing a law he now deemed unconstitutional?

A debate in the White House broke out. Some of his political advisers thought it made no sense to apply an invalid law. But his lawyers told Mr. Obama he had a constitutional duty to comply until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. Providing federal benefits to same-sex couples in defiance of the law, they argued, would provoke a furor in the Republican House and theoretically even risk articles of impeachment. Read More...

DOMA on verge of extinction?

Source: The Washington Post

The Supreme Court argument on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act was rather predictable. So-called liberal justices can’t get their minds around recognizing heterosexual marriage as deserving of special status. At the other end of the spectrum, Justice Antonin Scalia can’t fathom anyone questioning a couple thousand years of social convention. And then there is, as always, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is cautious but a firm believer in the 10th Amendment. Read More...

Majority of Supreme Court justices question constitutionality of Defense of Marriage Act

A majority of the Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to strike down a key section of a law that withholds federal benefits from gay married couples, as the justices concluded two days of hearings that showed them to be as divided as the rest of the nation over same-sex marriage.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the pivotal justice on the issue, said the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) may have intruded too deeply on the traditional role of state governments in defining marriage. The federal law recognizes marriages only between a man and a woman, and Kennedy said that ignores states “which have come to the conclusion that gay marriage is lawful.” Read More...

Supreme Court appears skeptical of DOMA

After yesterday's Supreme Court oral arguments on marriage rights and California's Prop 8, court watchers and those on hand for the proceedings seemed reluctant to predict the outcome. It's not just that speculation based solely on oral arguments is inherently risky, but also that real uncertainty hangs over the case.

That seems far less true 24 hours later. NBC's Pete Williams told viewers this afternoon, "Again with the caveat, it's always risky to predict, it does seem that there are at least five votes on the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act." Jeffrey Toobin added, "DOMA is in trouble." Read More...

Justices Cast Doubt on Benefits Ban in U.S. Marriage Law

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appeared ready on Wednesday to strike down a central part of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, as a majority of the justices expressed reservations about the Defense of Marriage Act.

On the second day of intense arguments over the volatile issue of same-sex marriage, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who most likely holds the decisive vote, returned again and again to the theme that deciding who is married is a matter for the states. The federal government, he said, should respect “the historic commitment of marriage, and of questions of the rights of children, to the states.” Read More...

DOMA Repeal Won't End Financial Uncertainty For Gay Couples

Source: The Huffington Post

NEW YORK -- Among those fighting for the recognition of gay marriage, the prospect of the Supreme Court striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act prompts hopes for equal treatment: The same medical insurance and retirement benefits companies and the government now offer to married straight couples could soon be available to gays and lesbians. Read More...

Argument recap: DOMA is in trouble (FINAL UPDATE)

If the Supreme Court can find its way through a dense procedural thicket, and confront the constitutionality of the federal law that defined marriage as limited to a man and a woman, that law may be gone, after a seventeen-year existence.  That was the overriding impression after just under two hours of argument Wednesday on the fate of the Defense of Marriage Act. Read More...

Supreme Court DOMA Case: Justices Sounded Skeptical Of Law's Constitutionality, Purpose

Source: The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Supreme Court justices on Wednesday morning appeared

skeptical of the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for federal purposes as between a man and a woman. Whether the justices believe they have the power to make any decision in this case, however, remained murky. Read More...

Supreme Court Gay-Marriage Primer: The Basics on Prop 8, DOMA, and What to Look For 

Source: New York Magazine

It all comes down to this: The Supreme Court will hear arguments starting today on two separate same-sex marriage cases, one involving California's Proposition 8 and one on the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and the rulings on each could go any number of complicated ways. The "unusually wide range of options" includes a historic decision for equality advocates that could make marriage a constitutional right for everyone or a narrow ruling that would leave the issue to the states, with multiple options in between. Below we've laid out the major characters, fun facts, key numbers, and potential conclusions of the year's biggest cases. Get familiar. Read More...

Human Rights Campaign Red Marriage Equality Sign Goes Viral

Source: Policymic

You might have woken up this morning to find your Facebook or Twitter news feed covered in a pink and red equal sign and been curious as to the image's origin. Well, here are the details.

The Human Rights Campaign is the nation's largest advocacy group for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities. Their logo is a yellow equal sign set on a blue background. The current incarnation is meant to bring awareness to the cause for marriage equality in light of the Supreme Court hearing arguments for two groundbreaking cases in the fight for marriage equality. For the next two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, proponents of marriage equality are also encouraged to wear red to show their support. Also, using popular Twitter hash tags like #Equality, #UnitedforMarriage, #SupremeCourt, and #Love will help your tweets launch into the discussion taking place on social media. Read More...

How We Got to the Supreme Court

Twenty years ago this July, I went to Hawaii to cover the lawsuit that launched the first salvo in the current war over marriage equality, ultimately leading to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Proposition 8 and, this week, arguments before the Supreme Court: Several gay and lesbian couples took the then-extraordinary step of suing the state of Hawaii, claiming gender discrimination because they were denied marriage licenses. The case crashed like a tsunami across the mainland. Anti-gay zealots rode the wave of homophobia while gay advocates in Washington gasped for air, drowning in anxiety. Read More...

Bill Clinton Declares He’s Against DOMA, Though He’s the One Who Signed It

Source: New York Magazine

With the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 both going before the Supreme Court later this month, we've already seen some historic shifts on gay marriage, from the Obama administration's suggestion that states can't decide the issue for themselves to prominent Republicans arguing that same-sex marriage promotes family values. Now even the man who signed DOMA into law thinks it should be struck down. In a Washington Post op-ed, Bill Clinton writes that the law contradicts the American values of "freedom, equality and justice above all," and "I have come to believe that DOMA is contrary to those principles and, in fact, incompatible with our Constitution." Read More...