Obama: DOMA is next, but patience will be required

[Bbucko]

From TPM:

"Repealing DOMA, getting ENDA [a bill to protect LGBT people from discrimination] done, those are things that should be done," Obama told The Advocate the night before signing Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal into law. "I think those are natural next steps legislatively. I'll be frank with you, I think that's not going to get done in two years. We're on a three- or four-year time frame unless there's a real transformation of attitudes within the Republican caucus."



The federal Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed in 1996, defines marriage as strictly heterosexual. It's currently facing multiple legal challenges, including two cases from Massachusetts in which a federal judge already ruled that part of the law is unconstitutional. Obama's Justice Department is defending DOMA.



[...]


"I have a whole bunch of really smart lawyers who are looking at a whole range of options," Obama said. "My preference wherever possible is to get things done legislatively because I think it gains a legitimacy, even among people who don't like the change, that is valuable."



"So with 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' I have such great confidence in the effective implementation of this law because it was repealed [legislatively]. We would have gotten to the same place if the court order had made it happen, but I think it would have engendered resistance," he added. "So I'm always looking for a way to get it done if possible through our elected representatives. That may not be possible in DOMA's case. That's something that I think we have to strategize on over the next several months."

Personally, I think that DOMA's demise will happen in the courts, not legislatively, and will most probably come when a married spouse of a serviceman killed in action will be denied the usual survivor benefits that an opposite-sex spouse would receive.

The repeal of DOMA is also instrumental to reforms in the immigration laws that currently keep legally-married couples of dual nationalities from living here. As has been mentioned in a previous thread, MLB's husband has so many legal thresholds to cross for a visa, he doesn't even try anymore, though he has legal claim to land MLB owns (unless there was some sort of prenup that just doesn't sound like MLB). This same nonsense affects thousands of couples who must choose to either live abroad or separate, something no opposite-sex-marriage would ever tolerate.

Of all the head-scratchers of the Clinton presidency, DOMA remains the most perplexing; when he signed it, he lost my respect permanently. Unlike DADT, it wasn't a "compromise" for anything, it's just institutionalized bigotry.

 

[chamisaguy]

I would hope for repeal of DOMA, a standing unconstitutional law which is now being successfully challenged in federal courts -- and yet I seriously doubt that the new Congress will be amenable to repealing DOMA, nor will the politicians really get behind the issues of same-sex couples' rights and the state-by-state discrimination and denial of equal protections, nor will the politicians be significant in creating a rethinking of so much of the US population. Better or not as a method to do away with it, the courts remain (IMO) the only way this will be overturned at both state and federal levels - based on the Constitution - and that's pretty unassailable.

The states' rights folks will argue that the population majority has spoken when it votes in referenda or legislation maintaining the status quo against the GLBT community here....I wish there were a way to turn the tables for a while!

 

[houtx48]

I agree with you about marriage and the courts. Marriage is going to happen, to much has happened already for it not to. I don't believe you can have marriage in someplaces and not others, it will be a legal nightmare.
Looking back at DADT, Obama not talking about it was a stroke of genius because if he had the Repubs would have dug their heels in harder and probably not have passed.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

Gay marriage is poised to be something that will be as controversial as abortion, and will be a heated topic for debate between political parties for generations. There's a part of me which agrees that this will be determined in the court system. With the GOP in charge of the House next year it would be close to impossible to pass any kind of bill for repealing DOMA. And the Senate, despite all of the actions made during the lame duck session, is still broken with a minority party who is trigger happy with the filibuster. If anything was to happen in the next two years, the court system would probably be the most effective. At the same time, I can see the benefits for pushing for a bipartisan agreement through Congress. With the repeal of DADT, it's hard for any person to formulate an argument with any substance against it since there are people on all sides of the political spectrum in support of it (Democrat, Republican, Independent). If DOMA was repealed in a similar fashion it may ease a lot of the tension once it finally clears.

It's gonna be another interesting two years, that's for sure.

 

[Bbucko]

Gay marriage is poised to be something that will be as controversial as abortion, and will be a heated topic for debate between political parties for generations. There's a part of me which agrees that this will be determined in the court system. With the GOP in charge of the House next year it would be close to impossible to pass any kind of bill for repealing DOMA. And the Senate, despite all of the actions made during the lame duck session, is still broken with a minority party who is trigger happy with the filibuster. If anything was to happen in the next two years, the court system would probably be the most effective. At the same time, I can see the benefits for pushing for a bipartisan agreement through Congress. With the repeal of DADT, it's hard for any person to formulate an argument with any substance against it since there are people on all sides of the political spectrum in support of it (Democrat, Republican, Independent). If DOMA was repealed in a similar fashion it may ease a lot of the tension once it finally clears.

It's gonna be another interesting two years, that's for sure.

Given the newly-elected congress, action on ending DOMA legislatively is virtually an impossibility. Given the system we have in place and the actual players we'll be dealing with over the next two years, the courts are our only recourse.

And since when is finding an unconstitutional law to be unconstitutional "activist"? That's their fucking job: it's part of the checks-and-balances built into the republic by the founding fathers who've been venerated to the point of fetishism by the Teabaggers and their ilk.

Of course, there's still no guarantee of victory, given the current SCOTUS. All we can hope for is that justice overrules ideology.

 

[Thedrewbert]

Any court that does it's job is an "activist court" in the eyes of the socially conservative.

 

[slurper_la]

Democrats Reintroduce Bill To Repeal Defense Of Marriage Act
Democrats Reintroduce Bill To Repeal Defense Of Marriage Act

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[Industrialsize]

John Lewis was one of the first American elected officials of any prominence to express support for, or at least acceptance of, same-sex marriage.
In 1996, he gave an impassioned floor speech against the Defense of Marriage Act introduced by his Georgia congressional colleague Bob Barr:

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