Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, federal appeals court declares
By Robert Barnes, Updated: Thursday, May 31, 5:32 PM
A federal appeals court panel in Boston declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional on Thursday, but said that only the Supreme Court will be able to settle the question of whether the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages from states where such unions are legal.
This is the most blatantly unconstitutional and unprecedented part of DOMA. Let's hope the Supreme Court isn't feeling too results-oriented on this one when they hear it.
How so? I can't imagine any consistent constitutional argument that would require the Federal government to leave the definition of marriage as used by the Federal government to each individual State and yet not also require that all States recognize a marriage contracted in any other State.
Under any argument that I can conceive of, if DOMA were found unconstitutional then it would force every State to recognize gay marriage.
As well they should. Check the full faith and credit clause.
