Supreme Court DOMA Decision Rules Federal Same
WASHINGTON The Defense of Marriage Act, the law barring the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages legalized by the states, is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday by a 5 4 vote.
moncler outlet online uomo “The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. “By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.” moncler outlet online uomo
Justice Kennedy delivered the court’s opinion, and was joined by piumini moncler scontatissimi Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito all filed dissenting opinions. Justice Clarence Thomas joined Scalia’s dissent in whole and piumini moncler parts of Alito’s opinion.
moncler outlet online shop As Kennedy read the majority opinion from the bench, cries were heard in the courtroom when the justice delivered the verdict that DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment. A number of same sex couples sitting in the audience looked up at the ceiling, while others wiped away tears. moncler outlet online shop
piumini moncler scontatissimi DOMA, signed moncler uomo by President Bill Clinton in 1996, prevented same sex couples whose marriages were recognized by their home state from receiving the hundreds of benefits available to other married couples under federal law. During the Obama administration, the Justice Department initially moncler outlet online uomo defended moncler outlet trebaseleghe DOMA in court despite the administration’s moncler saldi uomo desire to repeal it. But the Justice moncler outlet serravalle Department changed course in early 2011, finding that the law was unconstitutional and declining to defend it any longer. (The majority opinion slightly criticized that decision on Wednesday, writing that the “failure to defend the constitutionality of an Act of Congress based on a constitutional theory not yet established in judicial decisions” had “created a procedural dilemma.”) House Republicans have since spent hundreds of thousands of dollars taking over that defense. piumini moncler scontatissimi
moncler outlet trebaseleghe Plaintiff moncler bambino outlet Edie Windsor, 84, sued the federal government after the Internal Revenue Service denied her refund request for the $363,000 in federal estate taxes she paid after her spouse, Thea Spyer, died in 2009. moncler outlet trebaseleghe
piumini moncler During the March oral arguments in United States v. Windsor, a majority moncler bambino saldi of the court seemed to express doubts about the constitutionality of DOMA. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that supporters of the law seemed to want “two types of marriage,” likening same sex unions to the “skim milk” version of marriage. “This raises a most serious question under the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.” DOMA, the majority said, “humiliates moncleroutlet-i tens of thousands of children now being raised by same sex couples” and “makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives.” piumini moncler
Roberts, in his written dissent, said he “would not tar the political branches with the brush of bigotry” without “more convincing evidence that the Act’s moncler saldi outlet principal purpose was to codify malice.” He said he believed Congress acted constitutionally when it passed legislation to “retain the definition of marriage that, at that point, had been adopted by every State in our Nation, and every nation in the world.”
moncler bambino saldi Scalia delivered his dissent from the bench. “In the majority’s telling,” he said, “this story is black and white: hate your neighbor or come along with us. The truth is more complicated. It is hard to admit that one’s political opponents are not monsters, especially in a struggle like this one, and the challenge in the end proves more than today’s Court can handle. Too bad.” moncler bambino saldi
piumini moncler saldi Some, Scalia said, “will rejoice in today’s decision, and some will despair at it, that is the nature of a controversy that matters so much to so many. But the Court has cheated both sides, robbing the winners of an honest victory, and the losers of the peace that comes from a fair defeat. We owed both of them better.” piumini moncler saldi
In his written dissent, Scalia declared that the Constitution “neither requires nor forbids our society to approve of same sex marriage, much as it neither requires nor forbids us to approve of no fault divorce, polygamy, or the moncler outlet online shop consumption of alcohol.” The majority’s opinion, he wrote, declares “open season on any law that (in the opinion of the law’s opponents and any panel of like minded federal judges) moncler saldi can be characterized as mean spirited.”
piumini moncler outlet One of the same sex couples whose eyes had glistened with tears just moments before chuckled to themselves as Scalia spoke, rolling their eyes when he noted that the majority had characterized DOMA supporters as “unhinged members moncler donna of a wild eyed lynch mob.” piumini moncler outlet
moncler outlet serravalle But Scalia argued the majority’s decision “aggrandizes” the Supreme Court for little piumini moncler outlet other purpose than “to buy a stolen moment in the spotlight.” moncler outlet serravalle
moncler donna After concluding his dissent, Scalia prepared to deliver the verdict in Sekhar v. United States, a comparatively piumini moncler uomo obscure case questioning whether an attorney’s recommendation can be the subject of an extortion attempt under the federal Hobbs Act. moncler donna
“I’m sorry about that, but this is short,” he joked.
moncler bambino outlet The room erupted in laughter, and the piumini moncler saldi court moved on to its next case. moncler bambino outlet
Shortly after DOMA was struck down, President Barack Obama released a statement celebrating the decision. “This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The outlet moncler Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it,” moncler outlet he said.
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moncler uomo Catholic Archbishop: DOMA, Prop 8 Rulings Us All Catholic leaders are asking parishioners to consider the judgment of a higher power, not the nation’s highest court. moncler uomo
moncler outlet Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron issued a statement criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases, saying that attempts to redefine marriage “hurt us all.” moncler outlet
moncler saldi uomo The well being of our society, our nation, and our families is intimately linked to the institution of marriage. These decisions by the United States Supreme Court will make moncler saldi significantly more difficult our work of upholding the truth that marriage is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. moncler saldi uomo
outlet moncler Catholics and millions of our fellow citizens will continue to make the case, respectfully yet vigorously, that marriage cannot be redefined, and that attempts to do so hurt us all. outlet moncler
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Washington National Cathedral Rings Bells Celebrating Gay Marriage Rulings
moncler saldi The Washington National Cathedral rang bells at noon today to celebrate the Supreme Court rulings on the Defense Of Marriage Act and Prop 8 moncler saldi.