Massachusetts Sues U.S. Over DOMA

On Tuesday Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of her state's estimated 16, 000 married same-sex couples who are denied any recognition of their legally married status by the federal government due to 1996's odious Defense of Marriage Act.

According to TowleRoad:

The suit states that DOMA, termed "overreaching and discriminatory," interferes with the state's "sovereign authority to define and regulate marriage."

"We view all married persons equally," Coakley said at a press conference [Tuesday].

The basis for the suit is the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 8 of the Constitution. Along with the United States itself, defendants include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Massachusetts' lawsuit is another legal attack on DOMA, following a similar lawsuit filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders earlier this year. Both lawsuits just challenge Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits the United States from allowing any federal benefit, right or responsibility to be bestowed on any married couple in which the parties do not consist of a man and a woman:

SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.
(a) IN GENERAL- Chapter 1 of title 1, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 7. Definition of `marriage' and `spouse'

`In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word `marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word `spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.'.

(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 1 of title 1, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 6 the following new item:

`7. Definition of `marriage' and `spouse'.'.

This is not to be confused with the other recent federal lawsuit which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples as a matter of federal law.