Subverting the law of the land

By: American Decency Staff

When we take a look at what some of the conservative legal and policy experts are saying about the president's decision not to defend federal law in the shape of the Defense of Marriage Act, the whole setup seems to look very suspect. Before we look at that, we should answer the question, what exactly does DOMA do? DOMA is the law which allows states which do not allow homosexual marriage to not recognize such unions which were made in states that do allow gay marriage. So if a "married" gay couple moves from San Francisco, CA to my town of Fremont, MI, my state does not recognize them as legitimately married. DOMA solidifies each state's right to define marriage for itself. And so far, 31 states have defined marriage as between one man and one woman. If DOMA is overturned, as some Democrat senators are now pushing for, that right for each state to define marriage would be revoked. DOMA also defines marriage as between a man and woman in cases on the federal level. Here's what some of the top conservative legal and political minds are saying about Obama's proclamation that DOMA is unconstitutional and he therefore is not obligated to defend it. According to Alliance Defense Fund president Alan Sears, President Obama's decision only makes official what his administration has been doing all along. "…the Attorney General’s announcement only confirms what has been a reality since the Administration began “defendingâ€Â DOMA in the seven jurisdictions in which it is currently being challenged. It’s no exaggeration to say that the President’s team has been throwing the cases. The Administration has expressly waived advancing winning legal arguments and intentionally failed to cite binding legal precedent in each case. In fact, the Administration has “expressly disavowedâ€Â the winning legal arguments that the Bush Administration had made in previous cases. In short, it is clear that the President and his lawyers have been actively sabotaging DOMA in court." Sears added that there is a bright side to this story. "The good news is that the Attorney General's announcement paves the way for the House of Representatives intervention so that the federal law can be vigorously defended by an official party." Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council explained exactly what the president ruling says about his stand on traditional marriage. "Despite how his press office spins it, the President has done through actions what he refuses to do in words: endorsed same-sex "marriage."Even yesterday, after blowing off the law that bans it, the White House still had the audacity to say that the President is "grappling" with his views on gay marriage. If Barrack Obama is "grappling" with gay marriage, then gay marriage is winning. In fact, it may already have him pinned." Perkins went on to describe what seems to be the administration's efforts to underhandedly influence the court cases that they refuse to be involved with. "What's more, the administration seems to be coordinating these efforts with the assault on marriage in the states. Yesterday, within two hours of the President's statement, a document was quietly filed in the Proposition 8 lawsuit. And not just any document, but a 23-page motion that noted the Justice Department's withdrawal from the DOMA case as a reason to lift the stay on Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling. Why is that significant? Because legal documents of this magnitude take days, if not weeks, to review. Obviously, Ted Olson's team had inside knowledge from someone at DOJ that this decision was coming down – and made sure the Prop 8 challengers were strategically positioned to capitalize on it. If this is true, and Olson's team was fed information before Congress or even the Speaker of the House was made aware, there's something fishy going on." Jordan Sekulow, attorney and policy director at American Center for Law and Justice, believes that the timing of this announcement was strategic, as several cases are underway which challenge the constitutionality of DOMA. "This puts members of Congress in an awkward position this late into the case to start defending the law," Sekulow said in an interview with CNSNews.com, "My guess is that this was decided long ago to make it more difficult for members of Congress to obtain counsel to defend it." If these gentlemen are all correct, a picture comes together of a president who is working very hard to subvert a federal law which was passed in 1996 with an overwhelming majority in both houses. Another thing that should be mentioned is that Obama is on the record as saying that it is his duty to defend DOMA until and unless the courts repeal it. On June 29, 2009, the president gave a speech to honor "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month." In that speech, he noted his responsibility to uphold DOMA. "We have a duty to uphold existing law, but I believe we must do so in a way that does not exacerbate old divides. And fulfilling this duty in upholding the law in no way lessens my commitment to reversing this law." Even more telling than that was an answer White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave on January 18, 2008 to the Washington Blade which asked precisely this question of whether the president would drop the defense of DOMA. Gibbs: "Well, we can't declare the law unconstitutional… Obviously if you look at what was written, the president enumerates in there… our belief on this law as we balance the obligation that we have to represent the federal government; the president believes as you said that this is a law that should not exist and should be repealed but at the same time we have to represent the viewpoint of the federal government. There can be no question that Obama Administration knows exactly what it's doing. David Limbaugh summed it up nicely. "So now we have an imperial president who is refusing to enforce a law passed by powerful congressional majorities while persisting in enforcing a law (Obamacare) that two federal courts have already invalidated. The only common denominator is that Obama believes he is the law. If you haven’t already done so, we ask you to urge your member of Congress to do what President Obama refuses to do – defend the law of the land regarding the sanctity of marriage.  As we stated yesterday, 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 Representative 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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