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WillParkinson

(16,862 posts)
Tue Jun 5, 2012, 09:11 PM Jun 2012

A watershed moment for same-sex marriage

A watershed moment for same-sex marriage

And now, it's on to the U.S. Supreme Court for gay marriage.

A federal appeals court set the stage for a high court ruling that could come as soon as next year. The appeals court ruled last week that the federal Defense of Marriage Act discriminates against same-sex couples by denying benefits to them that heterosexual couples receive through marriage.

The appeals court in Boston got this decision right. The court ruled narrowly on the question of whether federal benefits are due same-sex couples, but it's a watershed moment nonetheless. It was the first time an appellate court had invalidated a part of the act.

<snip>

Judge Michael Boudin, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, wrote last week that Congress was attempting "to put a thumb on the scales and influence a state's decision as to how to shape its own marriage laws."

The ruling rights the wrong that prevents 100,000 same-sex couples now legally married from receiving benefits. Boudin argued that Congress did not have sufficient justification for the act. Denying the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples does not promote heterosexual marriage or child-rearing in "stable" heterosexual households.

In other words, disapproving of gay marriage on moral grounds alone does not justify discrimination. And the act was essentially a federal intrusion on what has typically been the domain of states: marriage. In that sense, this was a decision that conservatives might be able to embrace.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/a-watershed-moment-for-samesex-marriage-7b5lk97-157341455.html

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