NOM BLOG

NOM Responds to Obama Administration's Failure to Defend DOMA and Congress

 
“This is an attack not only on marriage, but on the prerogatives of Congress.”
- Brian Brown, President of NOM

WASHINGTON - The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) responded today to Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) as they filed a brief pretending to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

“The DOJ brief amounts to collusive litigation, failing to even offer to the court, much less vigorously defend, the reasons Congress laid out in the statute when it passed DOMA—especially responsible procreation.  This is an attack not only on marriage, but on the prerogatives of Congress. The Executive branch should not attempt to exercise this kind of retroactive line-item veto over a bill passed by Congress,” said Brian Brown, president of NOM.

DOMA, which was passed by bipartisan majorities in 1996, defines marriage for the purpose of federal law as the union of one man and one woman.  In the statute, Congress laid out four reasons justifying this definition of marriage including “responsible procreation.”  Courts in New York, Maryland and elsewhere have accepted this reason as the rational basis for marriage’s definition.  The DOJ brief formally defending DOMA, pointedly and explicitly repudiates the idea that responsible procreation is a purpose of DOMA, significantly undercutting the efforts of the Congress.

“All the parties to this litigation want the court to strike down DOMA; this is clear from their behavior, no matter what President Obama and his politicized DOJ pretend to convey to the public,” said Brown, “If Obama’s DOJ had merely honestly refused to defend the law, the court would likely have permitted another party to intervene to defend the law.  Obama’s DOJ is trying to retain control so it can lose this case.”

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