ABC on Obama anti-gay brief.
CBS:
It's true that the Justice Department is generally tasked with defending acts of Congress. Then again, Bill Clinton's DOJ refused to defend the abortion speech-related provisions of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, and a law mandating criminal penalties for giving paid Medicaid planning advice. Gay activist and Washington lawyer John Aravosis notes other examples of DOJ declining-to-defend.MSNBC.
If Mr. Obama felt strongly enough, or Attorney General Eric Holder believed DOMA was execrable enough, the DOJ could have taken a similar position in court here. At least the president could have coupled his administration's brief of DOMA with a speech calling on Congress to repeal it.
Neither, of course, happened....
The surprise should be that some supporters seem to have confused a politician's campaign promises with his actual policies.
AP:
Lambda Legal's Pizer said the government's stance in some ways marks an improvement from Justice Department positions taken on the Defense of Marriage Act when George W. Bush was president.Well yes, I supposed being compared to incest is a step up from being compared to bestiality. But geez. How could any gay group defend this brief?
The Advocate.
Village Voice.
Twitter got ugly today.
