Following on New York’s legalization of gay marriage at the end of June came another encouraging development for same sex couples in the immigration sphere: changing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities may delay or cancel deportations of immigrants married to U.S. citizens of the same sex, despite the federal Defense of Marriage Act [...]
As the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is (hopefully) hopefully underway, with a possible certification by top Pentagon officials in the coming days, CRCL would be remiss if we failed to applaud the Department of Justice’s recent Brief in Opposition to Motions to Dismiss in the 9th Circuit case, [...]
By Mary L. Bonauto and Gary D. Buseck Contrary to much of the commentary about the President’s decision not to defend DOMA in court, the issue of the standard of review for sexual orientation classifications is still a live claim in the First Circuit in the upcoming appeal of the [...]
King and Spalding announced today that they would no longer be representing the House of Representatives in litigation defending DOMA. The House had hired the firm last week after the Justice Department refused to defend the law and Attorney General Eric Holder called it unconstitutional. The chairman of the firm [...]
The House of Representatives has hired a prominent attorney, Paul Clement, to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) against pending constitutional challenges. Clement is a former solicitor general, who is also currently representing a group of states in a lawsuit against the health care reform recently passed by Congress. [...]
The African American community overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama in the 2008 elections. African Americans are also the ethnic group most opposed to same sex marriage, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Thus, when President Obama and Attorney General Holder announced last week that the Department of Justice would stop defending [...]
As noted in an earlier Amicus post, a key reason given by Attorney General Eric Holder for why the Justice Department will NOT defend DOMA in court is that the administration believes that gays and lesbians should be subject to “some level of heightened scrutiny.” So what exactly does that [...]
Contrary to the suggestion of one Amicus author, the Justice Department today announced that it will stop defending parts of the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court. The Washington Post, citing many of the same arguments put forth in that Amicus post, calls the move risky. Amicus will of course continue to cover the developments on the legal and social fallout from this decision.
The Editorial Board of the New York Times today encourages the Obama Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court. The law, they say, is “blatant discrimination” that should be “presumed to be unconstitutional.” With this, I agree. DOMA, signed into law by Bill Clinton, [...]
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