I interrupt this blogging famine to say that, in case you haven't heard, President Obama, in a major legal policy shift, has directed the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act — the 1996 law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages — against lawsuits challenging it as unconstitutional.
It's about time. Thank you, Mr. President.
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2 comments:
I felt the need to defend Obama on a Facebook post earlier today until a point was made to me that I think is important to consider: is this really a precedent we want to set? Should the President be able to just declare a law unconstitutional? What's to stop somebody in the future to just say we aren't going to defend Roe v. Wade anymore. Just something to ponder.
Well, he doesn't have that much real power. Congress would have to vote to actually repeal it, and they could still choose to appoint someone to defend it in court. But a legislative act is also not the same thing as a supreme court ruling like Roe v. Wade. Totally different processes involved.
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