Obama administration backs lesbian employees case

A court filing is believed to be the administration's first in which it urges a judge to find the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

President Obama speaks during an event honoring LGBT (Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Pride month in the East (Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO—In a strongly worded legal brief, the Obama administration says the federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman is motivated by hostility toward gays and lesbians and is unconstitutional.

The brief was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco in support of a federal employee's lawsuit contending the government wrongly denied health insurance to her same-sex spouse.
The Justice Department says Karen Golinski's suit should not be dismissed because the law under which her spouse was denied benefits — the Defense of Marriage Act — violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.

"The official legislative record makes plain that DOMA Section 3 was motivated in large part by animus toward gay and lesbian individuals and their intimate relationships, and Congress identified no other interest that is materially advanced by Section 3," the brief reads, referring to the section in the act that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Although the administration has previously said it would not defend the marriage act, the brief is the first court filing in which it urged a judge to find the law unconstitutional, said Tobias Barrington Wolff, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

The brief argues that gays and lesbians have been subject to a history of discrimination by federal, state and local governments and private parties. It also lays out the administration's position that sexual orientation is an "immutable characteristic," that gays and lesbians are minorities with limited political power, and that sexual orientation has no bearing on someone's ability to contribute to society and advances no legitimate policy interest.

Lawyers for a U.S. House of Representatives group that has stepped in to defend the marriage act's constitutionality did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

[Source : Los Angeles Time]