Mass. challenges federal Defense of Marriage Act

July 8, 2009 by savvyplanners.com

By Martin Finucane, Boston Globe Staff

Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize gay marriage, has become the first to challenge the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, saying Congress intruded into a matter that should be left to individual states.

Attorney General Coakley Credit: Boston Globe

“In enacting DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act], Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states’ efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people,” the state said in a lawsuit filed today in US District Court in Massachusetts.

The suit said that more than 16,000 same-sex couples have married in Massachusetts since gay marriage became legal in the state in 2004 “and the security and stability of families has been strengthened in important ways throughout the state.”

“Despite these developments, same-sex couples in Massachusetts are still denied essential rights and protections because the federal Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] interferes with the Commonwealth’s authority to define and regulate marriage,” the lawsuit said.

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which opposes gay marriage, said, “We believe the suit will have no credibility in the federal courts. The federal courts have already ruled that the DOMA is constitutional.”

He also noted that the DOMA was signed by President Clinton with a majority on both sides of Congress. “The nation is very resolute [in support of] the DOMA,” he said.

The lawsuit argues that DOMA, which was enacted in 1996, precludes same-sex spouses from a wide range of protections, including federal income tax credits, employment and retirement benefits, health insurance coverage, and Social Security payments.

The defendants named in the lawsuit include the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and the United States itself. 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.”

The lawsuit questions the constitutionality of Section 3 of the law, which defines the word “marriage” for the purpose of federal law as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” It does not challenge the constitutionality of Section 2, which provides that states are not required to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

The suit alleges that the law violates the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which reserves to the states all powers except those granted to the federal government. It also alleges that the law violates Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which limits the power of Congress to attach conditions to the receipt of federal funds.

“We applaud the Commonwealth’s decision to seek to protect its married citizens from the harms caused by federal discrimination,” said Janson Wu, staff attorney for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston, which filed its own lawsuit challenging the law on March 3.

Wu said the lawsuit brought by the organization on behalf of nine same-sex couples and three widowers relied more on equal protection claims, while the state’s lawsuit relies on a federalism argument.

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