Speaker of the House John Boehner has directed the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) to appeal Wednesday’s federal court ruling that found DOMA to be unconstitutional. Boehner has set aside up to $1.5 million to defend this 1996 law that has been declared unconstitutional now in at least four federal cases.
DOMA is the 1996 law that bans same-sex couples from receiving legal federal recognition of their union — and about 1100 benefits afforded automatically to heterosexual couples — and defines marriage as one man, one woman. The judge in Wednesday’s decision was California District Court Judge Jeffery White, who was appointed by George W. Bush ten years ago.
“The appeal sends the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which recently struck down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional under limited grounds,” MetroWeekly notes, adding that the “filing also notes, ‘The Democratic Leader and the Democratic Whip decline to support the filing of this notice of appeal’.”
Minority Leader and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi demanded John Boehner stop defending DOMA in a statement after Wednesday’s ruling.