Friday, February 25, 2011

The waves spread outward: the DOMA decision fallout

Initially, the DoJ said this decision was about the 2nd circuit. But like waves from a stone tossed in the water, the ramifications expand. From Metroweekly:
The fallout has been rapid and expansive ..., the Department of Justice filed a letter on Feb. 24 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit announcing that it "will cease its defense" of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in the two cases on appeal before the appellate court...

The third DOMA Sec. 3 challenge, Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. A...the judge in that case has asked the government to "explain how the government plans to pursue its defense of the case following [the Feb. 23] announcement that President Obama and Attorney General Holder have concluded that DOMA is unconstitutional and inappropriate to defend."...

Additionally, attorney Lavi Soloway announced that he will be filing requests in New York, New Jersey and California on behalf of three married, same-sex binational couples -- two gay male couples and one lesbian couples -- where one spouse is facing deportation. According to Soloway, "Each will brandish a pending green card petition filed by the American spouse on behalf of the foreign spouse." Soloway writes that he "will argue that deportation proceedings should be halted because the only thing standing between each couple and a green card is [Section 3 of] the Defense Of Marriage Act, which the President and the Attorney General announced this week will no longer be defended in court."


Meanwhile, the NY Times points out that the response from many quarters has been silence. Yes, Maggie Gallagher, NOM, and the Roman Catholic Bishops are irate. But other bellwethers of the Republicans have said....nothing.

1 comment:

PseudoPiskie said...

The Republicans are too busy taking women's rights away and destroying unions to think about DOMA right now.