The big fanfare that greeted Obama’s statement that the US Government would no longer defend the The Defense of Marriage Act, may have come too soon. It’s going to have to make a long trip through the US federal court system, almost certainly all the way to the Supreme Court, before each state will have to adopt it’s changes, which would effectively outlaw current bans on allowing gays to marry.
Many states in the twisted fractious United States have bans on allowing gays to marry, they even legally allow discrimination, so if the Defense of Marriage Act is quashed, then big changes would need to be done. But don’t expect a lot of rapid change. The Republican Tea Party have already pledged to fight such a move and have set aside more than $2 million in fund for the fight. The house speaker John Boehner announced Friday he will convene the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to start mounting a defence for DOMA. In Texas, the Republicans are vehemently opposed to the administration's decision to drop the defense of DOMA, as well as to same-sex marriage.
"If the Defense of Marriage Act were declared unconstitutional for the reasons that the Obama administration has outlined, it would make it very, very difficult for a state to bar same-sex marriage," Paul Collins, a University of North Texas assistant political science professor and constitutional law expert told local reporters. Obama’s administration has decided it wont any longer defend the law in federal court, stating DOMA wouldn't stand up to new heightened scrutiny usually reserved for testing laws for racial discrimination.
"The law of the land is the law of the land," Mike Conaway said.
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