Yesterday saw some big news when Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a lawsuit challenging DOMA.
Here are some reaction and responses to the news:
From the HRC:
“DOMA was wrong, discriminatory and mean-spirited when it was enacted in 1996, and today it stands between thousands of married couples and the equal protections they deserve,” Solmonese said. “We applaud the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for stepping forward on behalf of these families and saying, in essence, ‘enough is enough.’
From the NYT:
The state’s suit is similar to one filed in March by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the legal advocacy group that successfully argued for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. But that challenge, brought on behalf of a small group of same-sex couples and widowers, focuses more narrowly on equal protection as applied to certain benefits.
Gary Buseck, the group’s legal director, predicted that the two suits would eventually be joined and said the state’s involvement would add heft.
From the Huffington Post:
The genius of this complaint is that it takes a conservative argument — that liberal states should not be permitted to impose their tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality on the rest of the country — and turns it around to benefit a state that really pioneered gay rights in the U.S.
Even a conservative justice would support the notion that federal encroachment over those few areas where states have sovereign jurisdiction is unconstitutional. In this case, that principle supports, at the very least, limiting the application of DOMA when it affects state programs with federal funding.
: From my perspective, Coakley has done a great job of advancing the reasons why the state — as the state — has additional burdens to bear because of DOMA beyond the burdens that individual couples bear. As such, this suit does have a slightly different flavor than the Gill challenge.
Rep. Barney Frank:
Martha Coakley’s decision to join the lawsuit against the part of The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that denies federal recognition of thousands of valid Massachusetts marriages deserves the support and gratitude of all of the state’s residents.
From GLAD:
In filing this challenge, the Commonwealth and Attorney General Coakley uphold the Commonwealth’s long tradition as a national civil rights leader and take a major step towards ensuring that all its citizens are treated equally by the federal government. We applaud the Commonwealth’s move to protect legally married same-sex couples from the harms caused by federal discrimination.”
Charles Miller, a US Justice Department spokesman, said, “We haven’t seen it. Once we are served with it, we’ll review it and make a determination as to how to respond.”
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