News

By Kathleen Gilbert

BOSTON, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex “marriage,” has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an “overreaching and discriminatory federal law,” making it the first state to challenge the U.S. marriage statute. 

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the suit today, stating that DOMA interferes with the state's sovereign right to define and regulate marriage.  DOMA states that federal law defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and therefore Massachusetts' “married” homosexual couples are not granted spousal benefits in matters including federal income tax credits, healthcare coverage, employment benefits, and retirement benefits. DOMA also says that states cannot be required to recognize same-sex “marriages” contracted in other states where such “marriage” is legal.

Massachusetts abolished the traditional definition of marriage from state law in 2004.

“Congress's decision to enact a federal definition of marriage rejected the long-standing practice of deferring to each state's definition of marriage and contravened the constitutional designation of exclusive authority to the states,” states the lawsuit.

Coakley also wrote that Congress, in enacting DOMA, “undermined states' efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people.” 

The suit names the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the United States of America as defendants. 

“Today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts takes an important step toward ensuring equality and fairness for its citizens and maintaining our authority as a sovereign state,” said Coakley in a statement. “DOMA affects residents of Massachusetts in very real and very negative ways by depriving access to important economic safety nets and other protections that couples count on when they marry and that help them to take care of one another and their families.”

In 1996 DOMA was passed overwhelmingly in the House (342-67) and Senate (85-14) and was promptly signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

Charles Miller, a US Justice Department spokesman, responded by saying the lawsuit would be reviewed, and reaffirmed President Obama's intention to repeal DOMA.

Massachusetts' lawsuit comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit filed July 1 in New Orleans by a homosexual couple challenging Louisiana's constitutional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.  The men claimed the traditional marriage definition violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution and international law.

In May, two homosexual couples in California also challenged that state's constitutional ban on same-sex “marriage” in federal court.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins criticized the lawsuit, noting that DOMA was enacted primarily to protect states' rights to define marriage “as they see fit so that no state can force marriage redefinition on another state.”

“Now, the Massachusetts Attorney General is expanding the fight against traditional marriage by demanding that federal taxpayers from all 50 states subsidize same-sex 'marriage' benefits in Massachusetts,” said Perkins.

He continued: “Recognizing the ongoing threat to marriage, voters in the last election continued to define marriage in their state constitutions as the union of one man and one woman. We advise the U.S. Justice Department to fulfill its constitutional duties and continue its defense of DOMA against such frivolous lawsuits.

“We also urge any federal courts that hear this case to dismiss it and preserve the right of the people to decide such important public policy decisions.”

True marriage supporters in Maine today won a hard-fought battle for that right to decide: Stand for Maine Marriage announced that it had gathered the 55,000 signatures needed to put the state's new same-sex “marriage” law on the ballot in November, giving voters a chance to strike it down.  As of Wednesday, the signatures have yet to be validated by the Secretary of State's office.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09070111.html

Unhappy with Democracy, Bush v. Gore Rivals Join to Ask Fed Court to Overturn Proposition 8
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09052813.html