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02/22/2012
DOMA inching closer to DODO status
A major loss for BLAG (Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group), NOM (National Organization for Marriage), and discrimination (yucky):
San Francisco, February 22, 2012) – U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White today ruled the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional, declaring that the discriminatory federal statute violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equality. Lambda Legal and Morrison & Foerster LLP brought the case on behalf of Karen Golinski, a federal court employee denied spousal health coverage for her wife.
“This ruling, the first to come after the Justice Department announced it would no longer defend this discriminatory statute in court, spells doom for DOMA,” said Tara Borelli, staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s Western Regional Office in Los Angeles. “The Court recognized the clear fact that a law that denies one class of individuals the rights and benefits available to all others because of their sexual orientation violates the constitutional guarantee of equality embodied in the Fifth Amendment. The Court agreed with us that sexual orientation discrimination by the government should receive heightened scrutiny under the constitution. It then concluded that DOMA could not meet that standard, and that there was not even a rational justification to deny Karen Golinski the same spousal health care benefits that her heterosexual co-workers receive.”
KEEP READING: U.S. District Court Judge Rules DOMA Unconstitutional [Lambda Legal]
DOMA's kind of like snow. You know it's going to go away, I know it's going to go away, everyone knows it's going to go away. But in the meantime? Brrr, that sh*t's cold!
Oh, and also like the white stuff: DOMA is prettiest when it's falling!
