DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT
President's strategy is correct, has precedent
President Obama's decision to decline to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that even former President Bill Clinton now says he regrets having signed, is hardly precedent-setting.
Several former presidents, including Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton, have taken similar stances.
Interestingly, it was Chief Justice John Roberts, then acting in his role as a Justice Department attorney, who argued in 1990 that President Bush was not obligated to defend in court a federal law he deemed discriminatory (Metro Broadcasting vs. FCC).
President Obama is not dodging his constitutionally mandated role, he is fulfilling it. He has said, quite plainly, that gay and lesbian Americans shall not be treated as second-class citizens. Good for him. It's about time.
KATY DANIELS, MINNEAPOLIS
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I applaud the president and his Justice Department for doing what is right, what is just and what he took an oath to do: defend the Constitution.
The Defense of Marriage Act is very likely unconstitutional, as it makes discrimination against a protected minority into law. It behooves the Justice Department to distance itself from legislation that was passed in order to institutionalize bigotry.