Constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act

October 14, 2011 08:19


There are no constitutional problems with the Defense of Marriage Act. The act falls well within the constitutional authority of Congress. Barring a judicial activist court’s distorting the law, we fully expect all challenges to its constitutionality to fail, as they have in the past. – CWA

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), as its name states, aims to defend and protect marriage. It does so by preserving the historical, traditional definition of marriage in federal law and allowing each state to define the term individually. DOMA does not prohibit any state from recognizing homosexual “marriages.”
Contrary to widespread distortions, DOMA is not partisan legislation. Congress passed it with overwhelmingly bi-partisan votes of 342-67 in the House and 85-14 in the Senate. It was then signed into law by liberal Democrat President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996.

A more serious challenge has been launched through a legislative measure inconspicuously – and cynically – called the “Respect for Marriage Act,” which seeks to overturn DOMA. As a matter of policy, this measure should be opposed by all Americans and their legislators, as it would impose a seriously wrongheaded policy on our nation. But procedurally, new legislation is the proper way of to challenge DOMA, as opposed to asking a judicial tyrant to overstep her constitutional mandate to declare it unconstitutional.

By Mario Diaz, Esq. Concerned Women for America

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