Friday, November 07, 2014

Don't ever tell me the courts are not political. That would be a lie.

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) (Pub.L. 104–199, 110 Stat. 2419, enacted September 21, 1996, 1 U.S.C. § 7 and 28 U.S.C. § 1738C) is a United States federal law that allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.

On June 26, 2013, (click here) the United States Supreme Court ruled inWindsor v. United States that Section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that denies legally married same-sex couples over 1,100 protections and responsibilities of marriage, is unconstitutional.

DOMA is a very short document (click here). Section 3 is the laws and cites the part of the legal code of the USA that is altered by that law.

When the Supreme Court dissolved Section 3 it removed the law from the legal code of the USA. 

DOMA is unconstitutional. The ruling by the 6th Circuit occurred immediately after an election whereby Republicans secured many of their OLD seats that went to Democrats in 2008 after the global economic collapse; was nothing but pure politics. It is probably going to work out the red states that renewed their conservative base in 2014 will end up regretting it. But, I do not have a crystal ball. 

The 6th circuit is defying the Supreme Court decision of DOMA being unconstitutional. Now, if the Supreme Court decides to be political and return to a debate about DOMA then there is going to be quakes in the USA over this reality that will alter political discourse forever. But, if the Supreme Court is going to stand with it's original decision, the decision by the 6th Circuit will be returned to them with directions to do better. This should be interesting.

November 6, 2014
By Orlandar Brand-Williams

The Michigan couple (click here) at the center of the same-sex marriage debate vowed Thursday to "continue the fight" after a federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld the state's gay marriage ban....