On February 22, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ruled in the case of Golinski v. United States that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional.
Karen Golinski, the plaintiff, is an attorney for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Because of DOMA's restrictions, Golinski had been denied federal employee health benefits for her wife. In his Wednesday ruling, Judge White wrote that "DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution by, without substantial justification or rational basis, refusing to recognize her lawful marriage to prevent provision of health insurance coverage to her spouse." And he ordered the defendants to ignore DOMA and stop interfering with Golinski's efforts to enroll her wife in her family health benefit plan.
Interestingly, Judge White was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush. But that makes no difference to the homophobes, who will likely appeal the decision.
In this case, the homophobes defending DOMA in the courts are the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, who vowed to fight efforts to repeal DOMA when the Obama administration backed away from any such defense. And they're using our tax dollars to do it.
These are the same Congresscritters who complain about Democratic overspending.
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