As reported, the Obama Administration has decided it will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This is unusual because the Justice Department usually defends federal statutes.
While the major focus has been on the fact that the law defines marriage as between one man and one woman, there’s also another major aspect of DOMA: States don’t have to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. In fact, this state sovereignty issue is what drove the passage of DOMA.
In the cited article, the Obama Administration seems to be focused on this marriage definition:
Attorney General Eric Holder said President Barack Obama has concluded
that the administration cannot defend the federal law that defines
marriage as only between a man and a woman.
As I mentioned, their job is to defend federal statutes, but even assuming they have a valid reason not to defend the statute as it relates to the marriage definition, why does this preclude the Administration from defending the state sovereignty provision?
