Federal Appeals Court Finds Defense of Marriage Act to be Unconstitutional

A unanimous 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
1st Circuit ruled today that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage
Act, which denies federal benefits to same-sex couples who have
been lawfully married in states that permit gay marriage, violates
the U.S. Constitution. Here are some snippets from the majority
opinion of Judge Michael Boudin, a judicial conservative appointed
to the 1st Circuit by President George H.W. Bush:

This case is difficult because it couples issues of equal
protection and federalism with the need to assess the rationale for
a congressional statute passed with minimal hearings and lacking in
formal findings.  In addition, Supreme Court precedent offers
some help to each side, but the rationale in several cases is open
to  interpretation.  We have done our best to discern the
direction of these precedents, but only the Supreme Court can
finally decide this unique case....
To conclude, many Americans believe that marriage is the union
of a man and a woman, and most Americans live in states where that
is the law today.  One virtue of federalism is that it permits
this diversity of governance based on local choice, but this
applies as well to the states that have chosen to legalize same-sex
marriage.  Under current Supreme Court authority, Congress'
denial of federal benefits to same-sex couples lawfully married in
Massachusetts has not been adequately supported by any permissible
federal interest.

Download the decision here.
For more on the legal battle over gay marriage, check out
Reason's
previous coverage.

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