Academic

Miller on State Action & State DOMAs

By Lawrence Solum

Darrell A. H. Miller (University of Cincinnati College of Law) has posted State DOMAs, Neutral Principles, and the Mobius of State Action (Temple Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

This essay uses the Mobius strip as a mathematical metaphor for how state "defense of marriage amendments" (DOMAs) can twist the Shelley v. Kraemer contribution to state action doctrine. It argues that Shelley's core insight -- that judicial enforcement of private agreements can constitute state action and must meet federal Fourteenth Amendment commands -- can be used by state judiciaries to hold that state judicial enforcement of private agreements between same sex-couples is a species of state action forbidden by state DOMA. As explored in this essay, the potential doctrinal contortion of Shelley by state DOMAs is at once a testament to the law of unintended consequences, a cautionary tale about state experimentalism, and comment on the aspiration and limits of neutral principles of adjudication.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on September 29, 2008 (boomark / email).