Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

Vice President Joe Biden, appearing Friday on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America,” compared the nation’s changing views on gay marriage to changes in the military’s acceptance of gays and lesbians serving openly.

Two new lawsuits were filed Tuesday in federal courts in Connecticut and New York on behalf of gay and lesbian couples in four states, challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that denies federal benefits to married gay couples.

On the last possible day they could do so, the Obama administration filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in support of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, even though Obama has previously said he opposed the law.

The ruling in U.S. District Court in Boston on Thursday, in which Judge Joseph Tauro declared the “Defense of Marriage Act” as “unconstitutional,” has left the Obama administration pondering its next move — under the careful watch of gay rights advocates.

Gay rights advocates scored a major victory in federal court today, as a U.S. District Court judge in Boston struck down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that defines marriage as a legal union exclusively between one man and one woman.

The sponsor of a bill that would overturn the Defense of Marriage Act said repeal won’t happen in this Congress and that efforts next year will instead be focused on building support on the issue, reports DC Agenda. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in an interview with DC Agenda that lawmakers will work on passing […]

MSNBC. Though the Obama administration calls the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) discriminatory, the Justice Department nonetheless is defending the law in a court filing today in Massachusetts. The state has challenged the law, which denies federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples who are nonetheless legally married under state law. Massachusetts officials say the […]

WASHINGTON, DC — President Barack Obama, struggling to keep promises made during his presidential campaign, renewed his pledge to end the military’s ban on openly gay service members and once again called for repeal the Defense Of Marriage Act, as he appeared at a fundraising dinner for the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group on Saturday […]

BOSTON — Justice Department lawyers are reluctantly defending the federal law that prevents recognition of same-sex marriages, making their legal arguments in a Boston court while pointing out that the Obama administration opposes the measure, the Boston Globe reports. On Friday, Justice attorneys asked a federal judge in Boston to dismiss a lawsuit that claims […]

House Democrats are mobilizing around a new bill that would overturn the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman and relieved states of recognizing same-sex marriage performed in other states. Leading the effort is Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York), who said that when the law was signed […]