The Defense of Marriage Act was struck down in 2010 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sued the United States Government. Since then, Vermont, Connecticut, and several other states have sided with Massachusetts in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Court Judge Tauro, nominated to the bench by President Richard Nixon, ruled that DOMA violates the U.S. Constitution. U.S. District Court Judge Tauro stated the denial of federal rights and benefits to lawfully married Massachusetts couples "offends" the notion of states' rights as enshrined in the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution by:
"Intruding on areas of exclusive state authority, as well as the Spending Clause, by forcing the Commonwealth to engage in invidious discrimination against its own citizens in order to receive and retain federal funds in connection with two joint federal-state programs.
Congress and the President exceeded its authority in legislating the issue and that the measure infringed states' rights to regulate marriage and other domestic policies within their sovereign borders. Tauro said he agreed with Massachusetts that the law forced the Commonwealth "to engage in invidious discrimination against its own citizens in order to receive and retain federal funds."
The U.S. House of Representatives is wasting over $500,000 in taxpayer dollars to fight the ruling. Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has restricted the authority of Congress and the U.S. President to interfere in the jurisdiction of the States (that is the reason they are sovereign, and can nullify and/or condemn federal laws and refuse to enforce them).
This is an affront to the sovereignty of the States and yet another example of federal overreach and wasteful spending.
- Instead of "God Save the Queen," as the rallying statement in Canada, the United Kingdom and her other countries, let it now be said in the United States: "God Save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," for having the courage (and money) to stand-up to the United States Government in protest of the Defense of Marriage Act.
U.S. President Obama is showing the American people how anti-equality the new Tea Party and Republicans in the new U.S. House of Representatives are. U.S. President Obama ordered the U.S. Department of Justice not to fight U.S. District Court Judge Tauro's decision not only because of the cost involved, but because this is politics in its ugliest form; the decision of U.S. President Obama was also to appease the heat and countless rallies against him for failing to provide campaign promises to the LGBTI community.
- NOTE: Hats off to Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear for keeping a campaign promise to the LGBTI community when he assumed office by signing an executive order protecting them in Kentucky's Government.
We are victims of ugly politics here [in the District of Columbia], very carefully thought out, just like "The Family," organization in Washington, D.C. who encouraged Uganda to execute people for sexual orientation and gender identity (a U.S. Representative quickly distanced himself from The Family to Kentucky Equality Federation's Chairman of the Board as reported by The Guardian).
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