Vermont Governor Pledges to Veto Marriage Bill

I worked, 30 years, for an agency in the executive branch of the US Government. That branch used Federal Laws that say the Federal Government, for the purpose of Federally governed programs, must recognize each of the separate States accepted marriages. This was under the Uniform Marriage Code. Isn't the Uniform Marriage Code in complete opposition to that piece of Government Religion called the Defense of Marriage Act? There is definite contradiction, and why hasn't the Defense of Marriage Act been challenged and taken to the US Supreme Court? It is clearly based on religion as was proposition 8, where the Federal Government should have stepped in the Californian process and, still should, overturn the now illegal California State Constitution.

Hi Gerald, thank you for your comment.

I agree with you entirely. The main difficulty with the Defense of Marriage Act is that, until very recently, no one had standing to challenge it in federal court. The 'standing' requirement mandates that the party bringing the lawsuit be affected in some way by the law. When DOMA was passed, no state yet permitted same-sex couples to marry, meaning the law effectively hurt no one. Now that these couples are able to marry, they would have standing to bring a constitutional challenge to DOMA, but civil rights attorneys are hesitant to do this with the current make-up of the Court. If we lose, it sets a pretty bad precedent that will take even more work to overcome.

But you are correct. DOMA is, in my opinion, completely beyond the bounds of the constitution and improperly grants the federal governments rights that have been reserved to the states. I believe that when we do challenge it that we will win, but we have to take care to make sure the timing is right.