President Obama Declares DOMA to be Unconstitutional

By: American Decency Staff

In the last few years, following the election of Barack Obama and his subsequent push for nationalized healthcare, there has been a lot of conversation about the Constitution of the United States of America. As we know, our president once taught a class on the constitution and is, of course, an expert in all things related to it. It is safe, in light of his vast knowledge of the framework of our government, to assume that he knows what he can and cannot do in his office of president and would never over step those bounds. So when you hear a prominent member of the president's cabinet say something like this, "The president has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The president has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the president has instructed the department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the president’s determination." We can, of course, assume that there is nothing shady going on. All joking aside, unfortunately the president was a constitutional professor at Chicago Law School and he does know the boundaries of his power. That makes it all the more egregious when he so blatantly steps across them. Who would have thought  that we would ever hear these words from the White House: "the president has also concluded that_____ is unconstitutional?" It's bad enough that it is the Defense of Marriage Act, but what does it mean when a president of the United States can choose which laws his justice department will or will not enforce? Gary Bauer said it well in his comments on this announcement. "Excuse me? The president is the chief law enforcement officer, not the chief justice! It is not up to Barack Obama to determine which laws he likes and which laws he doesn't. It is his responsibility to enforce the law until the nation's highest court decides the law does not pass constitutional analysis." There are three branches of government for a reason. When one entity acquires too much power, it threatens the republic and is a huge step toward tyranny. James Madison, often cited as the "Father of the Constitution," lays this out this principle quite clearly in Federalist Paper 47, " The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many… may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." Yet this is clearly what President Obama has done, and this is not his first offense. Before Obama started deciding what was unconstitutional, he was deciding what was constitutional, whether the courts agreed with him or not. You may not have heard about this as none of the major media outlets reported it, but a federal judge on January 3 ruled the Obama administration to be in contempt of court for its continued implementation of a drilling ban on the Gulf of Mexico which was ruled unconstitutional. "The Obama Administration acted in contempt by continuing its deepwater-drilling moratorium after the policy was struck down, a New Orleans judge ruled. Interior Department regulators acted with 'determined disregard' by lifting and reinstituting a series of policy changes that restricted offshore drilling, following the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, U.S. District Judge, Martin Feldman of New Orleans ruled yesterday. 'Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance,' Feldman said in the ruling. 'Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt,' Feldman said. (Bloomberg) Defiance. Contempt. What appropriate descriptions. Several months before that ruling, on December 13, Judge Henry Hudson in Virginia found the president's health care law to be unconstitutional. "A federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional for the government to compel Americans to buy health insurance, marking the first time a court has struck down any facet of the massive new law to overhaul the nation's health-care system." (Washington Post) Although this ruling did not necessitate the discontinuation of implementing the law, the White House's response to the ruling is revealing. "There's no practical impact at all as states move forward in implementing … the law that Congress passed and the president signed," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters." (Associated Press) And now a Florida judge has ruled not just the individual mandate, but the entire healthcare bill to be unconstitutional. This ruling does block the implementation of the law, but the Obama administration shows no signs of slowing down. "A federal judge in Florida struck down President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare overhaul as unconstitutional on Monday in the biggest legal challenge yet to federal authority to enact the law. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled that the reform law's so-called individual mandate went too far in requiring that Americans start buying health insurance in 2014 or pay a penalty. 'Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void,' he wrote, 'This has been a difficult decision to reach and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications…' A White House official told reporters the administration planned to continue with implementation of the law. 'We'll continue to operate as we have previously and suspect that the states will do the same,' said the senior administration official, who asked not to be named." Surprisingly, very few of even the conservative news outlets are doing much with this development, but I think this is the biggest, most concerning news that we've had since the healthcare bill was forced through Congress in the first place. The good news for us supporters of the Defense of Marriage Act is that Congress still has the right to defend their legislation in court. The National Organization for Marriage has provided a 'take action' link which makes it easy to email your congressman and express your expectation of them to defend DOMA. Click here to let your Congressman know you expect him/her to stand up for marriage. http://www.nationformarriage.org/c.omL2KeN0LzH/b.6583369/k.98C8/DOMA_Defense/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx ——————————————————————————————————————— Your support is important to our ability to make a difference. Donate online at: https://secure4.afo.net/ada/donate.php American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 www.americandecency.org http://www.twitter.com/billwjohnson

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