Pressuring Obama To Not Flip Flop on DOMA

Joe.My.God is reporting about a new way to pressure President Obama to live up to his campaign promises to the LGBT community and work hard to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act called Operation Doma Flip Flop.

The campaign's press release says:

A national grassroots effort has been released on May 18, 2009 known as the DOMA Flip Flop campaign. Endorsing organizations include Join The Impact , Change.org , Join The Impact MA , and the Cambridge Democratic City Comittee . Organizers are asking participants to print out a ‘flip flop card’ with the the statement, “President Obama, please don’t flip flop on DOMA!” on it. Participants are asked to mail the ‘flip flop card’ to the White House from now until President Obama makes his decision on the DOMA lawsuit.

A President has the authority to not defend a Congressional law that is unconstitutional on its face. Past Presidents have exercised this right ranging from Ronald Reagan in the case of INS v. Chadha (1983) to George Bush Sr. in Metro Broadcasting v. Federal Communications Commission (1990) and Bill Clinton in Dickerson v. United States (2000). There is no clearer example of a blatantly unconstitutional law than DOMA which President Obama himself has called an “abhorrent law” and that its repeal is “essential”.

“President Obama, the defense of this discriminatory and archaic law will be tantamount to nothing short of a flip flop from your previously stated intentions. We’re asking you Mr. President, to take a principled stand for equality under the law and be the bold leader that we voted into office.” said Paul Sousa, creator of the DOMA flip flop campaign.

There is also a Washington Post editorial urging President Obama to take the very same action, “President Obama is on record opposing DOMA. Although the Justice Department typically defends acts of Congress in court, Mr. Obama should ask his legal advisers to determine whether they, like the plaintiffs, believe DOMA as applied in this case is unconstitutional. If so, Mr. Obama should consider whether this is one of those rare instances where the Justice Department declines to defend a law.”

The Obama Administration has until June 22 to respond in court to GLAD's lawsuit. Many people are watching the administration's actions very closely on this and other campaign promoises to the LGBT community.

The President is in Los Angeles today attending a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at the Beverly Hills Hilton.