By Rory Barbarossa
SAN?FRANCISCO, CA – The top members of the House Republican leadership have filed an appeal with the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, to overturn the decision of a lower court that declared the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law prohibiting the federal government from recognizing gay marriages, to be unconstitutional.
On Friday, Feb. 24, attorneys for the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group notified the lower court that they are requesting a review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of a ruling made last week by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. In that decision, White told the federal Office of Personnel Management that it could not use DOMA to deny medical coverage to a gay attorney who had enrolled her wife in a family health insurance plan.
Last year, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appointed the five-member advisory group to defend DOMA against legal challenges. This came after Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. said that Justice Department would no longer defend the law in court because the President Barack Obama had announced that it violates the civil rights of LGBT Americans.
Boehner was joined by the other Republican members of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), and Majority Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-California) in bringing the appeal. The two Democratic House members of the advisory group, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), refused to take part.
Last year, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) introduced separate bills to repeal DOMA. So far, the Republican leadership has brought neither to a floor vote.
Dean Trantalis, a Wilton Manors-based attorney, LGBT rights activist, and former Vice Mayor of Fort Lauderdale, said of the GOP triumvirate’s actions: “Once again government interference in private lives rears its ugly head.”
“Hypocrisy seems to be the Republican theme in this presidential year,” added Trantalis, who co-authored the 1995 Broward County Human Rights Ordinance and the 1999 Broward County Domestic Partnership Ordinance, both seen as public
policy landmarks which helped set the stage for this decade’s battles for marriage equality.
