Repubs begin defense of anti-gay DOMA

NPR has a terrific article outlining the issues involved in the House Republicans decision to defend DOMA on their own.

House Speaker John Boehner told reporters at a news conference this month that President Obama's turnaround on the anti-gay marriage law left Republicans with few options. "I don't think the House had any choice but to take the position that we were going to defend the work of the Congress. And only the courts are in the position of determining the constitutionality of any bill," Boehner said.

However, the constitutionality of the bill is exactly what will be determined - and sooner than later, I predict. Recent polls show that fair-minded, commonsense Americans have stated that federal legal recognition of lesbian and gay marriage is the right thing to do.

House Speaker John Boehner said he intends to divert funding from the Justice Department to the U.S. House so Congress can defend the federal law that bars recognition of same-sex marriage. An estimate on court costs was not given.

A prime example of how DOMA is unfair: the case of Edie Windsor, who spent more than 40 years with her female partner, Thea Spyer.

They got married in 2007, but the federal government didn't recognize the marriage. And when Spyer died, Windsor got an estate tax bill of more than $360,000 on the money Spyer had left her.

Carlos Ball, a professor at Rutgers School of Law in Newark, N.J., told Congress that's not fair. "There is no rational reason to impose a huge tax obligation on Edie that is not imposed on other New York widows," Ball said. "And that is just one example of why DOMA is unconstitutional."

Says ‎Congressman Jerrold Nadler: "There is no redeeming moral value to a law whose sole goal and sole effect is to persecute a group of people for no reason and no benefit to anyone else."

Read the entire NPR article.