The Obama administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike part of a controversial 1996 law that bars recognition of same-sex marriage, even in the nine states where it is now legal, for such federal benefits as income and estate taxes and federal employee benefits.
?The law denies to tens of thousands of same sex couples who are legally married under state law an array of important benefits that are available to legally married opposite sex couples,? the Justice Department argued in a brief urging the high court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act.
The justices hear oral arguments next month in two landmark marriage equality cases.? One is a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act.? The other is a challenge to California?s Prop. 8, which rolled back same-sex marriage in America?s largest state.? Lower federal courts have ruled against both DOMA and Prop. 8.
Washington, Maine and Maryland voted last November to legalize same-sex marriage, and has seen hundreds of marriages beginning in December.
?Each time the Obama administration acts to support LGBT (gay and lesbian) Americans, it feels even more significant when considered in the context of Presidential history:? It was not all that long ago that President Reagan refused to help when many were dying of AIDS,? said Anne Levinson, a former judge and Seattle deputy mayor, and strategist in the 2012 campaign for marriage equality.
?President Bush embraced a platform and led an administration that vilified the LGBT community,? Levinson added.
Same-sex marriage licenses issued in King County
In its legal brief, the Obama administration argues:
?Gay and lesbian people are a minority group with limited political power.? Although some of the harshest and most overt forms of discrimination against gay and lesbian people have receded, that progress has hardly been uniform (either temporally or geographically) and has in significant respects been the result of judicial enforcement of the Constitution, not political action.?
The Defense of Marriage Act ?targets the many gay and lesbian people legally married under state law for a harsh form of discrimination that bears no relation to their ability to contribute to society,? the brief adds.
The Obama administration announced last year that it would no longer defend DOMA in court.? The defense of the 1996 anti-gay law has been taken up, and paid for out of public funds, by the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops has also filed briefs in defense of DOMA, arguing that supporters of traditional marriage would be subject to attack if the law is overturned.
Source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/02/24/obama-admin-to-supremes-strike-anti-gay-law/
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