Coalition May Appeal D.C. Marriage Ruling to Supreme Court

In its 5-4 decision,
the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that the city’s Elections Board
acted appropriately when it decided that a referendum on the definition of
marriage would violate a human rights law barring
initiatives that would authorize discrimination. The district legalized
same-sex marriage in December, and the law went into effect in March.

Attorneys for the
Stand4Marriage D.C. Coalition, which challenged the elections board decision,
say they may appeal Thursday’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This case involves
the fundamental right of individual Americans to vote,” said Byron Babione,
senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and a member of its
Marriage Litigation Center. “It is an extremely important issue and one which
could be very attractive to the Supreme Court. We are weighing our options
about whether to appeal, and we feel like our case would be very strong.” 

The appeals court ruling
comes just a week after a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts ruled that
portions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are unconstitutional.
DOMA defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman and prevents states
from having to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere.

In his decision, Judge Joseph Tauro
said DOMA infringed on states’ rights to define marriage and award federal and
state benefits such as Medicaid. “Congress undertook this
classification for the one purpose that lies entirely outside of legislative
bounds, to disadvantage a group of which it disapproves,” Tauro wrote in his decision.
“And such a classification the Constitution clearly will not permit.”

Traditional marriage supporters
expect the Justice Department to appeal the ruling but are skeptical of its
defense. Many claim DOMA was not upheld in Massachusetts for the first time in
its history because of weak representation under the Obama administration.  President Obama has called DOMA “abhorrent” and
has called for its repeal. 

“Since they really are
advocating for the repeal of DOMA, you have the wolves guarding the chicken
house,” said Harry Jackson Jr., chairman of Stand4Marriage DC. “And many, many
people feel that’s the problem. We’re not expecting strong intervention from
the Justice Department.”

Attorneys at the
Christian legal firm Liberty Counsel, which have argued in favor of traditional
marriage in several national cases, say the Obama administration is
intentionally sabotaging DOMA.

In a 2009 brief
defending DOMA against a previous challenge, the Justice Department said the
government “does
not contend that there are legitimate government interests in ‘creating a legal
structure that promotes the raising of children by both of their biological
parents’ or that the government’s interest in ‘responsible procreation’
justifies Congress’s decision to define marriage as a union between one man and
one woman.” It pointed instead to research showing children
raised by gay and lesbian parents are as likely to be well-adjusted as children
raised by opposite-sex parents.

“Children fare best
when raised with a mom and a dad,” said Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty
Counsel and dean of the Liberty University School of Law. “Redefining marriage
to something it was not intended to be weakens the family and is not in the
best interest of children or society. … The Obama administration must defend
DOMA, not sabotage the law.” 

Jackson said gay
marriage supporters may try to use the DOMA ruling to accelerate its repeal. He
is urging traditional marriage advocates to contact their representatives in
Congress and make marriage a campaign issue this November. 

“What we’re seeing is
same-sex marriage activists pulling out all stops while they have a Congress in
place who might vote against traditional marriage and a president who would
sign a law to reverse DOMA,” Jackson said. “I believe they’re going to try to
really move this [campaign to reverse DOMA] forward immediately. That would
essentially, if passed, make same-sex marriage the law of the land nationally
within a year and a half or two years of its passage.”

Despite the setbacks for
traditional marriage—on Thursday, Argentina became the 10th nation
to legalize gay marriage—supporters are optimistic about the future of
marriage. 

Although gay marriage
is legal in five states and the District of Columbia, all 31 states that have
put the issue to a vote have upheld traditional marriage. And last week, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a measure that
would have conferred the legal rights of marriage to same-sex couples, which
bill opponents say would have paved a road to gay marriage in the state.

“I think there are serious challenges to traditional
marriage, but the people every time they’ve spoken they always have given me
confidence that they move in the right direction,” Staver said. “And despite
the series of states where they had some victories about a year ago, the polls
have not gone in their favor. So I think still more believe in marriage as one
man and one woman, which is good.”