[Second draft of history. My prior posting on this week’s ruling in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases was written shortly after the opinion was release, and was intended as a basis for my journalistic comment to be published in Gay City News that day. Herewith my more extensive draft, reflecting further thought and containing many more quotes from the Court’s opinion, written two days later. And amended after a few hours to reflect some
same-sex marriage
Supreme Court: Clearing Up the Cert Backlog After the DOMA and Prop 8 Decisions
Yesterday the Supreme Court decided U.S. v. Windsor, affirming the 2nd Circuit and holding that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act violates the 5th Amendment, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, holding that the initiative proponents of Proposition 8, who had been allowed to intervene in its defense at trial, lacked standing to appeal the district court’s ruling. The decisions will go into effect after the Court issues its mandate, which is normally … <Read More>
Supreme Court Invalidates Section 3 of DOMA but Avoids Ruling on Proposition 8
[First draft of history. This posting was written within the first few hours after the Supreme Court’s release of its decisions this morning in US v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry. I’ll certainly have second thoughts and third thoughts, etc…. but this is the first draft of history.]
In a pair of 5-4 rulings released on June 26, the United States Supreme Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates … <Read More>
Federal Judge Certifies Class Actions Against DOMA Section 3
A federal district judge in Los Angeles has certified a nationwide class action lawsuit attacking the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in the context of spousal immigration rights. Having denied a motion to dismiss the case by the Justice Department and the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives (BLAG) on April 19, Judge Consuelo B. Marshall then determined in a separate ruling that plaintiff Jane DeLeon and … <Read More>
Is DOMA (Section 3) Doomed? Supreme Court Argument Suggests That Possibility
This morning, March 27, 2013, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Windsor, No. 12-307, in which Edith Schlain Windsor, the surviving spouse of Thea Clara Spyer, sued the federal government in her capacity as executor of her wife’s estate for a refund of the estate tax that was levied in 2009. At issue in the case is the constitutionality of Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which … <Read More>
Obama Administration Files Amicus Brief in Opposition to Proposition 8
On February 28, the Obama Administration weighed in on Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144, the pending challenging in the Supreme Court by the American Federation for Equal Rights (AFER) to California Proposition 8, by filing an amicus brief arguing that the Court should declare California’s constitutional provision limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. The government is the Petitioner in the companion case
… <Read More> Prop 8 Case: The Respondents Weigh In
Briefs have now been filed on behalf of the Prop 8 Respondents, the two same-sex couples on whose behalf the lawsuit challenging California Proposition 8 was filed, and the City and County of San Francisco, which was allowed by District Judge Walker to intervene as a co-plaintiff in the case. These briefs, filed in Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144, on February 21, are different in their focus, reflecting the different roles of the plaintiffs and … <Read More>
Will the Supreme Court Actually Decide the DOMA Case?
When the Supreme Court granted the Solicitor General’s petition for certiorari on December 7, 2012, in United States v. Edith Windsor, posing the question whether Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act violates the equal protection rights of married same-sex couples by denying them federal recognition, the Court added two questions: Whether the government’s “agreement with the court below that DOMA is unconstitutional deprives [the Supreme Court] of jurisdiction to decide this case, and … <Read More>
Merits Briefs in Supreme Court Marriage Cases Make Heavy Federalism Pitch
On January 22, attorneys defending against constitutional challenges to California Proposition 8 and Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act filed their briefs on the merits with the United States Supreme Court. Links to the briefs can be found on the Supreme Court’s website: click on the Docket box on the left side of the site and there is a link to the special page set up for these cases (Hollingsworth v. Perry; … <Read More>