Memo to the White House: Don’t Stop, Start Defending DOMA

Chuck Donovan / February 15, 2011

The New York Times continues to lower the threshold of responsibility in matters marital, and yesterday’s editorial calling on the Obama Administration to abandon the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is the latest—and perhaps oddest—example.

It is odd first and foremost because the Obama Justice Department’s defense of DOMA maintains a pattern that a distinguished scholar has termed “almost like collusive litigation”—that is, where presumed adversaries are actually seeking the same result. The Obama Administration is indeed all but abandoning DOMA—but not in the forthright manner that would result in a real battle in the courts where both sides of the controversy are represented. (more…)