President Obama Defends Justice by Rejecting DOMA
Filed by: Guest Blogger
February 24, 2011 2:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2011/02/president_obama_defends_justice_by_rejecting_doma.phpEditors' Note: Guest blogger Shannon Minter is the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Today brings momentous news from President Barack Obama and the federal Department of Justice about the discriminatory and offensive so-called "Defense of Marriage Act," or DOMA. This morning, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that, at the urging of the President, as well as based upon Mr. Holder's own assessment, the Department of Justice will no longer defend Section 3 of DOMA - the section that prohibits the federal government from recognizing legal marriages between same-sex couples.
The Attorney General also announced that the President and the Department of Justice agree that laws that discriminate based on a person's sexual orientation are presumptively invalid and should be subject to heightened judicial scrutiny, just like laws that discriminate based on sex, religion, national origin, and race.
