A point that should have been raised in DOMA arguments today
My set-up is from this Washington Post story on the oral arguments:
Now let me take you back to 1967, to just before Loving v. Virginia overturned bans on interracial marriage. 16
Paul D. Clement, representing Republican House leaders who are defending the law, said Congress was not discriminating but simply staying out of experiments by the states on same-sex marriage.The law does not punish states that allow such unions, he said, but simply lets the federal government decide how it wants to allocate its benefits.Remember this: DOMA denied the recognition of same-sex marriage under more than 1,000 Federal laws.Clement is arguing that if states want to experiment with the terms of marriage, the Federal government should not be required to grant recognition to what they did.
Now let me take you back to 1967, to just before Loving v. Virginia overturned bans on interracial marriage. 16