Obama, Democratic Congress to empower the federal judiciary through repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act

Scott Ritsema
CIVICS NEWS.com
January 22, 2009

CNSNews reports:

Unveiling his agenda Tuesday on the newly refurbished version of the White House Web site, Obama called for the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), as well as the extension of more than 1,000 federal marriage benefits and of adoption rights to homosexual couples.

The new administration laid out its plans on the Web site–whitehouse.gov–at 12:01 p.m. EST, during Obama’s swearing-in ceremony.

The Defense of Marriage Act was an attempt by the Congress to assure that federal judges would not impose one state's marriage rules upon another state. This act preserved the principle of federalism whereby each state gets to set its own rules on matters that are not delegated to the federal government in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.

Congress is fully within its powers in doing so. According to the Constitution, federal judges take their marching orders from Congress, as Congress created the federal courts and has the power to set the jurisdiction of those courts. Congress should be applauded for restraining the arbitrary rule of unelected judges. No doubt, if the Defense of Marriage Act was to be repealed, federal judges would eventually impose on all of the states marriage rules that take place in Massachusetts.

Notice the commentary here has nothing to do with imposing the Christian view of marriage upon anybody. I am for the de-politicizing of marriage altogether. Each state legislature would be wise to get out of the marriage business to defuse this divisive and distractionary issue. But it remains a state issue in which federal courts should not intervene. This is why the Defense of Marriage Act needs to stay.