Minnesota Democrats push to end their state version of DOMA

As the GOP in Minnesota try to ban gay marriage, the Democrats came back hard with a bill (the Marriage and Family Protection Act) that would repeal their state version of DOMA.

Here's some more info:

“Marriage is a legal institution recognized by the state to promote stable relationships and to protect people in those relationships and their children,” the bill states. “Minnesota’s current marriage law discriminates against same-sex couples, denying them and their families rights and responsibilities, including the right to pension and Social Security survivor’s benefits, the right to family and medical leave, and numerous other benefits and obligations. The state has an interest in encouraging stable relationships regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the partners and the entire community benefits when couples undertake the mutual obligations of marriage.”


The bill removes language from Minnesota statutes stemming from the 1997 Defense of Marriage Act. Instead, statutes that refer to “husband” and “wife” would also refer to “spouse.”


Doug Benson of Marriage Equality Minnesota, which helped draft a similar bill last year, said the bill isn’t likely to go anywhere.


“With little chance of passage this biennium, it is largely a symbolic gesture, but symbols are important,” he said. “We are pushing forward toward equality in the face of our oppressors’ onslaught,” he added, referring to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

I think this is a solid gesture. I hope they try to stop this silly marriage ban.

source

WATCH: Mike Huckabee believes Gay Marriage with cost Obama Latino & African American Votes

Oh Mike, you know very little about this game

VIDEO: AG Eric Holder explains why the DOJ no longer defends DOMA

The NRA drops King & Spalding over the DOMA case

I guess this will be a trend with these people. The NRA (the Gun Club for Men) dumped King and Spalding because... You guessed it. The DOMA case. Here's their letter of concern:

We are writing to notify you of our decision to terminate our legal services agreement with King & Spalding, effective immediately, due to the firm's decision to bow to political pressure and abandon a client in the midst of a legal representation. Specifically, our decision is motivated by your withdrawal as counsel for the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives in defense of Section III of the Defense of Marriage Act.

We believe King & Spalding's decision is indefensible and raises serious concerns about its ability to be a reliable and effective advocate for any client facing potentially controversial litigation.

To be clear, our decision is not motivated by any position on the statute itself. As you know, the National Rifle Association is a single-issue organization dedicated to the protection of the Second Amendment. We are, however, often involved in controversial issues on which emotions can run high. This is as true in the legal arena as it is in the legislative. It goes without saying that in situations in which we retain outside counsel, we expect them to zealously advocate for our interests and not abandon the representation due to pressure from those who may disagree with us.

The representation we have received to date from King & Spalding, specifically by former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, has been outstanding. Given your firm's recent conduct, we cannot continue to rely on King & Spalding to represent the NRA. Indeed, your decision only serves to embolden ideological organizations to protest the legal representation of other organizations with which they disagree, with the goal of freezing their opponents out of legal representation entirely. That, in turn, threatens the very principles on which our legal system is based.

Therefore, we hereby terminate our legal services agreement with King & Spalding.

Interesting. I see that these fallouts will show us who's really on our side.

source

VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli ends his relationship with King & Spalding

Ken Cuccinelli is being a little bitter. Since King & Spalding dropped the DOMA case, he is dropping them. But why? Here's his reason:

"King & Spalding's willingness to drop a client, the U.S. House of Representatives, in connection with the lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was such an obsequious act of weakness that I feel compelled to end your legal association with Virginia so that there is no chance that one of my legal clients will be put in the embarrassing and difficult situation like the client you walked away from, the House of Representatives."

Weakness? Maybe common sense? Maybe since they expressed their support of the LGBT community before all this? Who knows, but I think they will be able to sleep at night knowing Ken no longer needs their services.

source

The Attorneys who were Defending DOMA has Backed Out of Case!

Juicy, juicy! The firm King and Spalding has decided NOT to defend DOMA in court! This is a huge turn of events, sending a super strong message to the GOP and haters.

Here's more from Politico:

King and Spalding Chairman Robert D. Hays, Jr., whose partner Paul Clement was to lead the defense, said in a statement through a spokesman, Les Zuke:

Today the firm filed a motion to withdraw from its engagement to represent the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives on the constitutional issues regarding Section III of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Last week we worked diligently through the process required for withdrawal.

In reviewing this assignment further, I determined that the process used for vetting this engagement was inadequate. Ultimately I am responsible for any mistakes that occurred and apologize for the challenges this may have created.

The statement is silent on the reasons for the decision, but the firm faced protests at its Atlanta office and a national campaign against it. And now the House majority may have to find a new lawyer.

But there's more, kids. The superstar lawyer, Paul Clement, has resigned from the firm.
 
PPM153 Clement resignation letter

Defending DOMA will cost us $500,000; $520 per hour

The House GOP got some nerve. After talking about wasteful spending, they reveal how much this "defending marriage" mess is going to cost us taxpayers. $500K!

Here is the contract the House GOP signed with Paul Clement.
House Republicans' Contract with Paul Clement over defending DOMA
Think Progress points out key parts

Although Clement’s firm is charging less than the $900 an hour they typically bill for their top attorneys’ work, Clement will still leave the American people with a massive legal bill:


2. The General Counsel agrees to pay Contractor for all contractual services a sum not to exceed $500,000.00. … Furthermore, it is understood and agreed that should the $500,000 cap be reached before the Litigation is complete, and if the cap has not then been raised by written agreement…contractor shall not be obligated to continue providing legal services under this Agreement.


3. The General Counsel agress to pay Contractor at a blended rate of $520.00 per hour for all reasonable attorney time expended in connection with the Litigation, and at 75 percent of the Contractor’s usual and customary rates for all reasonable non-attorney time…and to reimburse Contractor for all reasonable expenses incurred by the Contractor in connection with the Litigation[.]


The House GOP’s decision to stand by this unconstitutional assault on gay families is indefensible, and it is made all the worse by their fiscally reckless decision to hire one of the most expensive lawyers in America. Indeed, it wasn’t even necessary for the Republicans to hire a law firm at all to represent their anti-gay position.

This is believable and unbelievable. This is not going to solve anything at all, just more wasted money and more folks being reminded that the GOP is full of crap.

The House GOP is wasting our money to defend DOMA

The House GOP just love making fools of themselves. In order to defend DOMA, they have enlisted Bush appointed former Republican Solicitor General Paul Clement to take the case, even though DOMA is pretty much viewed as unconstitutional.

HRC has the story:

“Not only are House Republican leaders defending the indefensible, they’ve brought in a high priced attorney to deny federal recognition to loving, married couples,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “Speaker Boehner appears ready to go to great lengths, and the great expense of a high-power law firm, to try to score some cheap political points on the backs of same-sex couples.  King & Spaulding were not required to take up this defense and should be ashamed of associating themselves with an effort to deny rights to their fellow citizens.”

Earlier today, Speaker Boehner released a letter he sent to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in which he endorsed a right-wing plan to defund part of the Department of Justice because of the Obama Administration’s thoughtful analysis that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

“With such a high-priced lawyer, it’s no wonder the Speaker is grasping at straws in order to justify spending taxpayer money on defending discrimination,” said Solmonese.  “Next he’ll probably call for slashing Education Department funding because kids might learn it’s unconstitutional to discriminate against certain groups of people.”

According to a March 2011 poll conducted by HRC and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, 51 percent of voters opposed DOMA and 54 percent opposed the House Republican’s intervention in cases challenging its constitutionality.

“With the American people clamoring for leaders to deal with the economy, voters are no doubt scratching their heads wondering how a boondoggle for right-wing lawyers is going to help their pocketbooks,” said Solmonese.

I want Boehner to explain this money wasting action to the people. It's seems he and his boat full of losers are not concerned with the state of our country at all.

WATCH: Highlights From the "Defending Marriage" Hearing

Last Friday, Maggie Gallagher and other bigots gathered in D.C. to discuss saving marriage from the evil gays and lesbians.

The Washington Blade reports: 

In testimony before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Gallagher, NOM’s chair and co-founder, said marriage should restricted to one man and one woman because such unions are the only kind that can produce children and because state voters by referenda have affirmed 31 times that marriage shouldn’t be extended to gay couples.


“Marriage is the union of husband and wife for a reason: these are the only unions that create new life and connect those children in love to their mother and father,” Gallagher said. “This is not necessarily the reason why individuals marry; this is the great reason, the public reason why government gets involved in the first place.”

The hearing, which was titled “Defending Marriage,” took place on the heels of President Obama’s announcement on Feb. 23 that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and that his administration would no longer defend the anti-gay law against litigation in court.

Please watch this clip that has some highlights from this mess of a hearing

Interesting Quote: Barney Frank

There are lawsuits against it that I think will win anyway, because the federal government can’t discriminate. Beyond that I don’t see anything about gay marriage happening on a federal level. More and more states will go that way, though. When they do, people will see, as with health care and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” that there are no negative consequences. Places that have gay marriage have had none of the negative consequences that people warned us about. Zero. The divorce rate hasn’t gone up. There have been no calamities. Marriage hasn’t lost its meaning. Same-sex marriage as a divisive issue is losing its steam. Overall I think antigay prejudice is on its way out.

He's talking about President Obama's stance on DOMA

WATCH: Pastor Ken Hutcherson speak Nonsense about DOMA and Gay Marriage

Look at this potato head jack!

Shut your goblin face up, fool!

WATCH: NOM's Broke Ass attack against President Obama

WATCH: The Dems Introducing the DOMA Repeal

House


Senate

Democrats introduced The Respect for Marriage Act today

Democrats are moving fast to end the insidious DOMA bill. Earlier today, they introduce a new bill that will start the acknowledgment of gay married couples.

The legislation, titled the Respect for Marriage Act, was reintroduced in the House and introduced in the Senate for the first time. 

Should the bill be signed into law, it would repeal a section of DOMA defining marriage at the federal level as between a man and a woman, allowing same-sex couples to be eligible for federal benefits. The bill would not force states to recognize same-sex marriages. 

Democratic lawmakers decided to move on the bill after the Obama administration said it would refuse to defend DOMA in court, questioning the law's constitutionality. A legal panel in the GOP-controlled House later voted to defend the law for the U.S. government. 

This bill will face an uphill battle, but who said civil rights was a easy fight, right?


source

New Poll: Folks Ain't Feeling DOMA, or the GOP for Defending It

The HRC reveals how America views and DOMA, the GOP and a little about gay marriage.

51 percent of voters oppose DOMA while 34 percent favor it. Independent voters, who were instrumental in the Republican House takeover, oppose the law by a 52 percent to 34 percent margin. Additionally, when read statements for and against defending DOMA in court, 54 percent of voters oppose the House Republicans' intervention, while only 32 percent support it. Given a list of issues important in determining their vote for President, voters ranked the economy and jobs (54 percent), Medicare and Social Security (23 percent) and education (19 percent) as most important with only 5 percent of respondents saying marriage was most important to them. Finally, when presented with the actual benefits from which married same-sex couples are excluded, voters overwhelmingly support extending those benefits.

Read it and weep, GOP

source

HOUSE GOP Vote to Defend DOMA in Court

Those dirty bastards! The GOP dominated House voted to defend DOMA.

Chris Geidner, from Metro Weekly has the story

The Bipartisan House Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), by a 3-2 vote over the objections of House Democratic Leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), directed the House General Counsel to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, according to a statement just issued by a group of Democratic lawmakers.

Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Barney Frank (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jared Polis (D-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), and John Conyers (D-MI) just issued the following joint statement:
“This 3-2 vote, carried over the vigorous objection of House Democratic Leaders and structured to avoid a vote of the House as a whole, is partisanship at its worst.

“The President correctly concluded that the Defense of Marriage Act cannot and should not be defended in court.  It has been 15 years since Congress enacted DOMA, and the myths and stereotypes used to support its enactment have been shattered.  Married gay and lesbian couples pay taxes, serve their communities, struggle to balance work and family, raise children and care for aging parents.  Their contributions and needs are no different than anyone else’s.  The majority of Americans understand this and now favor extending the time-honored tradition of marriage to loving and committed gay and lesbian couples.  There is no legitimate reason for the federal government to continue denying married gay and lesbian couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that recognition of their marriages would provide.  

“We are extremely disappointed that the House Republican Leadership has decided to actively promote and defend discrimination; and they cannot cloak their intentions with the false assertion that the President or DOJ have failed to execute the law faithfully.  The Administration considered this issue carefully, over several years, and opted not to defend DOMA in court after extensive study of the legal and factual issues at stake.  Based on the lack of any reasonable arguments that justify the harm that DOMA imposes on loving gay and lesbian couples, DOJ correctly concluded that Section 3 of the law violates the Constitution.  Its conclusion was hardly remarkable, as one federal judge already has ruled that the law is unconstitutional and cannot be justified under even the lowest level of judicial review.  

“The President’s decision that DOJ should not be expected or required to continue making harmful and unreasonable arguments that demean its credibility, and that of the American people, was appropriate.  While the decision not to continue defending a law is rare – as it should be – it is not without precedent.  The President has pledged to honor his duty to faithfully execute the law by enforcing Section 3 of DOMA until it is either struck down or repealed.  His courageous decision also honors his oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’ by ensuring that the rights it guarantees have meaning.

“Rather than seeking to defend this law in court, House Republican Leaders should work with us to repeal DOMA.  This action debunks House Republican Leadership’s claim of being the so-called guarantor of states’ rights.  House Republican Leaders seem only to favor states’ rights when it suits them ideologically.  Rather than recognizing every states’ married couples equally, Section 3 of DOMA refuses to recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples from five states and the District of Columbia.  Those states have a clear interest in ensuring that all of their married couples receive the same recognition under federal law.  Certainly, Republican Leadership is not acting in these states’ interests.”

The move comes in the wake of today's 4:30 p.m. meeting of the BLAG, which Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) convened on March 4 in response to the Department of Justice's Feb. 23 decision that it would no longer defend Section of DOMA.

More to come, y'all. More to come

Interesting Quote: Henry Rollins

In to save the day, to keep those damn gays in their place, is House Speaker John Boehner, who will put himself and his sterling reputation on the line to stand against the president, his insurgent gay terrorist pals, and their dreams of marriage and equal protection under the law. That’s a relief. When things threaten to become too constitutional, thankfully, there’s someone like John Boehner, owner of every third tear cried in America, to step in and attempt to push America back into the good old days of darkness. Rather than shoulder the awesome burden of creating some damned jobs in America, he goes for the easy cheap shot of going after gay Americans. Again.


Of course same sex marriage is constitutional! The right to be yourself, to pursue life, liberty, and property, is protected several ways over several amendments. John Boehner should know this. If only he read the Constitution as often as some of us do, he wouldn’t have bothered to lower himself to this time-wasting, pathetic attempt to invigorate his base of supporters.


Damn, congressman, we’re trying to get up the road here. Either lay out a plan for job creation for all of us to see or get out of the way. You are the Speaker of the House. Scratching around in the ancient dirt of repellent prejudice instead of tackling the real issues is amateur hour. You have a plan? Now’s the time. 

source

Hardball Bashes John Boehner & Log Cabin Republicans over DOMA

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

John Boehner will create a group to Defend DOMA

In a fresh press release, John Boehner has announced his plan to defend DOMA

“I will convene a meeting of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group for the purpose of initiating action by the House to defend this law of the United States, which was enacted by a bipartisan vote in Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton. It is regrettable that the Obama Administration has opened this divisive issue at a time when Americans want their leaders to focus on jobs and the challenges facing our economy. The constitutionality of this law should be determined by the courts -- not by the president unilaterally -- and this action by the House will ensure the matter is addressed in a manner consistent with our Constitution.”

Whatever, Dunce! Why don't you get a committee together to fix the economy or to provide jobs. You know, the things you promised.

VIDEO: Rep. Trent Franks said to Impeach President Obama over DOMA