Coast Lines: May 16, 2008

Awesome for the Red Cross to honor the great people in the community. I hope there is an article on this after the ceremony.

Can the Calif. Sup Ct strike down Calif's state DOMA (Prop 22), when the FEDERAL DOMA grants states the right to enact state DOMAs?

Will wrote:

Can the Calif. Sup Ct strike down Calif's state DOMA (Prop 22), when the FEDERAL DOMA grants states the right to enact state DOMAs?

Short answer...Yes, they just did!

Long answer...Federal DOMA was enacted to prevent one state from being FORCED to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state. It was NOT enacted to prevent states from deciding on its own what constitutes a marriage for the citizens of that state or to decide on its own to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. That's where you seem to be confused...California is not being forced by another state to recognize the marriages of any other state. California, within the confines of it's own government, decided it was unconstitutional to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples.

In other words, DOMA prevents Massachusetts from REQUIRING California to recognize the same-sex marriages being performed in Massachusetts, but DOMA does not prevent California from deciding on its own that it is unconstitutional to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples.