Legal News

Agitated State: Massachusetts Takes Aim at DOMA

By Chris Herring

It’s almost as if we can’t go a week without some development in the same-sex marriage debate that has a legal hook (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The latest has serious potential, we think, to grab headlines for weeks and months to come and rile up all sorts of folks on either side of the issue. In other words, a perfect blog story, we think.

The story: Massachusetts on Wednesday became the first state to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal legislation that defines marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. Click here for the Boston Globe story; here for the complaint.

In its lawsuit, which names the Health and Human Services Department, Department of Veterans Affairs and simply the United States in general as defendants, the state argues that the Section 3 of the law is unconstitutional. That section defines who and what constitutes a “marriage.” It also states that the Defense of Marriage Act prevents same-sex partners from enjoying a wide range of protections, ranging from employment and retirement benefits, insurance coverage and Social Security payments.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the suit’s filing drew a quick response from Kris Mineau, of the Massachusetts Family Institute, who told the Globe: “We believe the suit will have no credibility in the federal courts. The federal courts have already ruled that the DOMA is constitutional.” He added that former President Bill Clinton signed the act and that it had a majority of the Senate and the House in 1996 when it was enacted.

“The nation is very resolute [in support of] the DOMA,” he said.

Massachusetts has been a trailblazer of sorts for the gay rights movement. In 2003, it became the nation’s first state to legalize same-sex marriage. The Commonwealth’s high court said it was unconstitutional to deny homosexuals the right to marry. Since the ruling, six other states–California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont–have implemented same-sex marriage laws through legislation or state court rulings. (The ruling by the California Supreme Court invalidating a law banning same-sex marriage was nullified last year by voters through the passage of Proposition 8.)

The news comes a day after new legislation recognizing same-sex marriages from other states took effect in Washington, D.C.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 08, 2009 (boomark / email).