Justice Department defends DOMA… AGAIN

The Obama administration is again defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act while continuing to call for its legislative repeal in a new brief filed in response to an activist group’s lawsuit against the law.

The U.S. Justice Department issued the document Friday in response to the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders’ federal challenge against DOMA, known as Gill v. Office of Personnel Management. The lawsuit specifically targets the DOMA provision that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage.

While maintaining that administration believes DOMA should be repealed, the Justice Department urges the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts to dismiss the lawsuit.

The brief acknowledges that the Obama administration believes DOMA is discriminatory, but also says the Justice Department must defend DOMA as long as reasonable arguments can support its constitutionality.

“The law of this Circuit requires that the court find that DOMA is constitutionally permissible because Congress could reasonably have concluded that DOMA is rationally related to legitimate government interests,” says the brief.

The brief argues that DOMA “is entitled to a presumption of constitutionality” because it doesn’t preclude states from recognizing marriage rights for same-sex couples and because federal courts haven’t found a fundamental right for the federal benefits that DOMA restricts.

“No court has found such a right to federal benefits to be fundamental — and the federal courts that have considered the question in the context of DOMA itself have rejected such a claim,” says the brief. “Likewise, the First Circuit has held that sexual orientation is not a suspect classification, and heightened scrutiny is not appropriate on that basis.”

[ sovo.com ]