Posted by Joe Sudbay (DC) at 8/24/2010 10:28:00 PM
Team Obama keeps hoping to avoid the issue of marriage equality. But, they can't ignore it. Over the next few months, we're going to find out if the DOJ is defending DOMA's constitutionality in the Massachusetts cases. And, we'll find out if Obama meant it when he said he supported the Prop. 8 decision. The crack team of lawyers in Obama administration can go on-the-record with its support of Judge Walker's decision. They can. But, will they?:
Days before the 2008 election, then-candidate Barack Obama said California's Proposition 8 was "unnecessary" and "not what America's about."
Now, some same-sex marriage advocates are hoping Obama's Justice Department will make a similar argument in court. The federal government is not a party to the Proposition 8 litigation, which pits gay and lesbian couples against supporters of a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. But the Justice Department could weigh in as amicus curiae -- either when the case arrives at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court or, sooner, before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Such a decision would typically be up to Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal with input from across the federal government, including the White House.
The involvement of the Justice Department would add further significance to what is already the nation's most-watched court case, officially named Perry v. Schwarzenegger, while also raising difficult political questions for the Obama administration. "There have been people encouraging the U.S. Justice Department to follow the progress of the Perry case, to discuss it internally and to support the civil rights of gay and lesbian Americans," said Jennifer Pizer, director of Lambda Legal's Marriage Project, which filed an amicus brief in the case's trial phase.
http://gay.americablog.com/2010/08/another-chance-to-support-equality-will.html
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