Sometimes, a court case is so strong that you don’t need to win on all counts to get the same result. And perhaps the legal precedent you were hoping to set won’t be achieved – because the Justices didn’t need go that far to secure a victory. Such is the dilemma LGBT advocates now face with the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday. The law clearly violates equal protection, as it denies married same-sex couples all the 1,100 federal marriage benefits their straight counterparts enjoy – and overruling it could set a federal precedent that gays are a “suspect class.” That may still happen, but the Court could repeal DOMA on more technical grounds: (1) House Republicans lack standing to defend the law and (2) DOMA is an attack on states’ rights. Even with a less desirable outcome, that would still be a major victory for marriage equality.
↧