Since its enactment, the federal defense of marriage act (DOMA) has been a bulwark for marriage, assuring that for all federal purposes marriage was recognized only as the union of a man and a woman, and that no state had to recognize the same-sex marriages performed in another state. Thus, it is no surprise that the future of DOMA is foremost on the mind of marriage defenders and any assault upon it is viewed with considerable gravity.
President Barack Obama, beholden to massive campaign contributions from homosexual activists, has pledged to work to repeal the law, and now Massachusetts Attorney General, Martha Coakley, has filed a lawsuit in United States District Court, challenging the constitutionality of section 3 of DOMA.
In her complaint, she claims that the 16,000 same-sex couples who have married in Massachusetts have strengthened the "security and stability of families" in important ways throughout the state and that DOMA "interferes with the Commonwealth's sovereign authority to define and regulate marriage." She calls DOMA "an overreaching and discriminatory federal law."
What, of course, is overreaching is for Massachusetts in any way, to try to define marriage for other states by knocking down DOMA, when in every instance it has been voted on, the people have spoken clearly in defense of marriage.
It is also noteworthy that her complaint uses the language of the conservatives, speaking of the security and stability of families and states rights, while she seeks a radical redefinition of marriage for all of us by attacking DOMA.
The lawsuit is different from other pending challenges to DOMA, because it's brought by a state, not gay couples, and because the core issue is federalism, not individual rights.
The complaint notes that 1,100 federal statutory provisions are impacted by DOMA, which demonstrates just how far-reaching into our everyday lives, any redefinition of marriage flows. Supporters of gay marriage predict that other states where same-sex marriage is legal will also challenge the federal law.
