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Defense of Marriage Act

Posted: Feb 23, 2011

I'm just curious how the president and the attorney general can decide which laws to defend and which ones not to. Whether you agree with this law or not, it is a law and to be repealed, it has to go through certain channels, not just being ignored by the WH.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110223/ap_on_re_us/us_gay_marriage

;

Amazing, huh? This administration is unbelievable. - Guess they are above the law,, hmm.nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

You mean the law they said they would enforce til it is repealed - or set aside?hmmm.nm.

[ In Reply To ..]
Go figure.

Nowhere in your cited source do I see - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
language where Obama or Holder said they would "ignore" this law, unless you count posts in the comments section. In fact, in the Reuters version (as opposed to the AP version) of this story cited below, directly under the heading "Deeply Disturbing" Holder clearly states that they would CONTINUE TO ENFORCE the law until it is either repealed or struck down.

Of course, Fox news is reporting the exact OPPOSITE, ie Obama and Holder will not enforce DOMA. Just another one of their fibs I guess they will have to apologize for later, but for the life of me, I cannot understand what they hope to gain by lying outright, can you?

What they did say is that they will no longer mount defenses in appeals proceedings on the constitutionality of DOMA. This is not a question of what they will or will not defend, but rather the strategies they will or will not use WHILE DEFENDING the law in the appeals process. Big difference.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110223/pl_nm/us_gaymarriage_obama

Help me understand this, then. - Zville MT

[ In Reply To ..]
"The White House framed Obama's decision as one brought on by a legal deadline in one of several federal court cases challenging the constitutionality of the law which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman."

Does this mean there will be no appeal process in these cases, another lawyer will get this case, or will it just go away until a time when this law can be repealed? Both of these articles are so vague in what it actually means for the WH not to defend - how can they not defend what is law? If they use other strategies, wouldn't that still be considered as defending it?

I'm not being sarcastic or trying to start anything about gay rights, I really just want to understand how the WH can say they're not going to defend a law if it's stil a law. I understand the difference between enforce and defend, but if there are federal court cases, they're going to have to defend it, right?

BTW, I didn't hear anything about this on Fox - just read the article on Yahoo when I opened my email this morning.

I agree that the language is vague. - My take on this is

[ In Reply To ..]
that all legal avenues will remain open in these cases, including staged appeals, for as long as the law is on the books. To my knowledge, no initiatives are being launched for repeal yet. They will continue to defend the LAW itself, but will not present arguments based on its CONSTITUTIONALITY (which they had used in the past) during those proceedings.

Thus it is correct to conclude that they will continue to defend DOMA until such time it is either repealed or set aside. To answer your question specifically, taking the decision NOT to defend the law itself is not an option for them. Dropping constitutionality arguments is a viable alternative and, in fact, I heard reports on this last night (either CNN or MSNBC) that there are precedents for these types of decisions by previous presidents and attorney generals.

That same report stated that Holder and Obama had examined certain established criteria (dont know what it is called) used to assess constitutionality of laws aimed at groups who have been "notoriously" subjected to discrimination. Evidently, Holder and Obama did not feel that DOMA could stand up against that scrutiny. It would be interesting to research which president set what precedents and to read the criteria (and how it evolved) Holder and Obama used to "test" DOMA constitutionality. If I can find this info, I will put it up later in a new post.

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