Today, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued its order finding that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act — the federal definition of marriage — is unconstitutional in Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, Karen Golinski’s challenge to the denial of her request for equal health insurance benefits for her wife. http://www.metroweekly.com/pol…
In part, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White today found that Section 3 of DOMA violates the equal protection rights of Golinski, finding that heightened scrutiny applies — as urged by the DOJ — and noting that it might not even pass rational basis — the lowest — legal scrutiny:
The Court concludes that, based on the justifications proffered by Congress for its passage of DOMA, the statute fails to satisfy heightened scrutiny and is unconstitutional as applied to Ms. Golinski.
Although the Court finds that DOMA is subject to and fails to satisfy heightened scrutiny, it notes that numerous courts have found that the statute fails even rational basis review.
This is the first decision since the Justice Department declined to continue to defend DOMA. It is the second ruling that reached similar conclusions. That first case, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. United States is still on appeal.
I’m really trying not to be snarky about this because it should be treated as a huge win for LGBT rights but I’m not always a very nice person so I’m going to say what I want to say anyway.
First of all I would hope (hahahahaha) that Speaker Boehner would quit wasting money defending this craptacular mess. We know he will waste more of our money, though, because if nothing else it is an election year.
Secondly, for those who crap all over the President for his personal position on same-sex marriage: STFU! There, I said it. While I certainly think the President’s personal position is unfortunate this President has done more for LGBT rights than any other president and that’s what he should be judged on. One of the muckety mucks at that certain orange-tinged site had (or still has) a sig line that reads something like “tell me what you do and I’ll tell you what you believe.” I’ve always thought that was a bit presumptuous to start with and I think this President’s actions/inactions with regard to the LGBT community says more about him than do his personal beliefs. Because keep in mind Dick Cheney actually supports same-sex marriage but did nothing while in office to advance his cause (rumor has it that he did make calls on behalf of SSM in Maryland).
Anyway, congratulations to Ms. Golinski and her spouse, Amy.
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