John Boehner Thinks Gay Marriage Should Be Banned Because Of Polygamy
Paul Clement, a high profile attorney hand-picked by John Boehner — who is spending 1.5 million tax dollars to defend a federal ban on gay marriage — Â is arguing DOMA must live because of polygamy.
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, decided last year to invest $1.5 million — your tax dollars — to defend DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act that bans the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, after President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder both declared the 1996 law to be unconstitutional. Literally dozens of federal judges have weighed in since — and agreed with the President.
Speaker Boehner tasked the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) to defend DOMA, and appointed a handpicked high profile private attorney, Paul Clement, to defend challenges to DOMA in federal court. Clement’s batting average for all the DOMA cases he’s defended is .000. Clement, who also famously lost the fight to strike down Obamacare, is a a former United States Solicitor General who served under President George W. Bush.
Now, Paul Clement, hand-picked by John Boehner, is arguing that DOMA must live because of polygamy.
In the heartbreaking case of Windsor v. United States, Edie Windsor, an 83-year old widow who is fighting — and has won in several federal courts — a “death tax” of $363,000 that, if the federal government recognized her legal marriage to her wife who passed away, she would not have pay. Windsor married Thea Syper two years before her death, although the couple had been together for 40 years.
“The lawyer [Paul Clement] for House Republican leaders had to reach all the way back to 1885 today when asked where the ‘traditional understanding’ of marriage could be found in federal case law — referring to a case dealing with polygamy in the Utah territory,” Chris Geidner, writing at Buzzfeed yesterday, reported on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals trial in New York:
That case, decided about polygamy in Utah before women were guaranteed the right to vote, came only 20 years after the end of the Civil War and more than 80 years before the court would strike down bans on interracial marriage. Today, it was one of the underlying arguments in House Republican leaders’ case that the Supreme Court recognizes a “traditional understanding” of marriage that the Defense of Marriage Act is seeking to uphold.
…
The arguments were at points similar to arguments heard in April before the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which determined that the law is unconstitutional. Today’s arguments, however, included an admission by Clement that if courts decide that laws targeting gays and lesbians should be viewed skeptically, like those based on race or sex, then it would be more difficult to justify DOMA.
“That said, I’ll try it,†Clement told the judges, noting that “there’s no way to preserve the definition of marriage [as one man and one woman] other than by preserving the definition. It becomes somewhat circular.â€
Geidner examines broad issues of DOMA and scrutiny — how the courts decide what standards to use in determining whether or not DOMA is unconstitutional — and concludes with this:
More than 30 years before the U.S. Constitution would be amended to prohibit voting discrimination based on sex, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a law that required those in the Utah territory to take an oath that included a statement that the male was violating bigamy or polygamy prohibitions.
The case, which cited the infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision declaring that slaves were not citizens under the U.S. Constitution as evidence of governmental powers in the territories, was mentioned by Clement. It’s the case, he told Judge Chester Straub, a Clinton appointee to the bench, where the Supreme Court referenced the “traditional understanding” of marriage.
The 1885 case takes a hard line on the role of marriage in the post-Civil War nation, in reference to the practice of polygamy in the Utah territory.
The court wrote that “no legislation can be supposed more wholesome and necessary in the founding of a free, self-governing commonwealth … than that which seeks to establish it on the basis of the idea of the family [is] consisting in and springing from the union for life of one man and one woman in the holy estate of matrimony.”
That definition of marriage, the court wrote in 1885, is “the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civilization; the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent progress in social and political improvement.”
Steven Thrasher, writing “For Elderly Gay Widow Edith Windsor, The GOP Is All For High Taxes,” today in The Daily Beast, notes:
“When Barack Obama proved unwilling to hound an octogenarian widow for a tax bill she never should have been charged, House Speaker John Boehner proved more than willing to take up the task—even at a cost to taxpayers of far more than the money she owed.”
Death and taxes, and GOP hate and ignorance. Four things that you can aways count on.
Image circa 1877, via Wikipedia: Brigham Young’s 12 widows lament. Caricature in a newspaper about Mormon polygamy. Text: “In memoriam Brigham Young. And the place which knew him once shall know him no more.” It references the apocryphal “long bed” story (and illustration) found in chapter 15 of Mark Twain‘s 1872 book Roughing It.
Related:
Breaking: 145 House Democrats File Amicus Brief Denouncing DOMA
Breaking: DOMA Declared Unconstitutional Again — By A Bush Appointee
Fighting DOMA, Edie Windsor Now Takes Her Case To The Supreme Court
Breaking: DOMA Ruled ‘Unconstitutional’ In Lesbian Estate Tax Case
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has declared that the Trump administration’s massive deportation plans will continue without any amnesty for migrant farm workers, and insisted that “able-bodied” American adults who access Medicaid for health care insurance should be the ones to replace deported migrant farm workers. Critics have pushed back.
“I can’t underscore enough,” Secretary Rollins said at a press conference at the USDA on Tuesday, ahead of a White House Cabinet meeting. “There will be no amnesty, the mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation.
She added that, “with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.”
READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC
Secretary Rollins’ remarks do not take into account that nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults under 65 accessing Medicaid are already working, according to KFF. Another 28% are exempt due to illness, school, or care-giving responsibilities.
Her statistic of 34 million able-bodied adults on Medicaid is promoted by a right-wing think tank, the Foundation for Government Accountability, which advocates for reducing work restrictions on teenagers, and opposes expanding Medicaid.
Also, there is not large-scale farm work available in every state, nor, does it appear, that would many Americans want to perform that work, especially for low wages. Farm work rarely offers employer-paid health care. And farm work is often seasonal.
Critics blasted Secretary Rollins.
READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
“They’re like cartoon villains,” wrote Bloomberg Opinion columnist Patricia Lopez. “So send Medicaid recipients in as field hands? Also, what is meant by strategic mass deportations? Just Blue states?”
“Lol,” exclaimed Yahoo News reporter Jordan Werissmann, “we’ve gone from ‘the USAID program analysts will make shoes’ to ‘people will pick strawberries to keep their health care’.”
“I have talked to literally thousands of MAGAs and have not found a single one who will work on a farm. Not one,” wrote New York Times bestselling author Ramit Sethi. “This is simply anti-immigrant bigotry from Republicans.”
“Ah, yes,” remarked journalist Lydia Polgreen, “those high paying farm labor jobs that include health insurance!”
“Did not think the script for 2025 would feature villains co-written by Charles Dickens and Pol Pot,” added historian Mike Cosgrave.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Brooke Rollins on farm laborers: “There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way. And we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied on Medicaid we should be able to do fairly quickly.” pic.twitter.com/GsLprEFImG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2025
READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms
Image via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy escalated his attacks on New York City Tuesday morning, slamming the subway system as unsafe—despite double-digit declines in several major crime categories and an overall drop in transit crime. Duffy also lashed out at the city’s highly popular and successful six-month-old congestion pricing program, denounced its bike lanes, and took aim at liberal policies more broadly.
“I’m laughing, but it’s not funny,” Secretary Duffy told Fox News on Tuesday morning, when presented with some NYC crime statistics (video below). “So if you include the pickpocketers in those stats, yes, pickpocketers might have gone down, but assaults have gone up,” he said, “by 66% since 2019.”
“It’s dangerous to ride the subway in New York,” Duffy alleged. “And again, if you’re Kathy Hochul, the governor, or if you’re MTA, you don’t ride the subway. This is a war on Middle Americans, working Americans who have to ride the subway, and these people don’t seem to want to make it safe.”
Duffy declared reducing crime on the subways is “very simple,” and charged that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which oversees the subway system, is “not willing to fight crime like they should.”
READ MORE: ‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods
“By the way,” he continued, “when they talk about congestion pricing, yeah, it’s when they say it’s working, it’s working because they’re raising money. That’s why they say it’s working, but congestion is horrible still in the city. That’s because they’re taking roads for buses and for cars, and they’re making them bike lanes.”
He then blasted “liberals.”
“So when you take away lanes, you get more congestion, and then they complain about congestion,” Duffy charged. “It’s just stupid liberals with stupid policies.”
Duffy’s remarks come just days after President Donald Trump’s attack on New York City mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani. The President vowed, “I’ll save New York City, and make it “Hot” and “Great” again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
Secretary Duffy has targeted New York City’s subway system almost from the start of his tenure. In March, from New Jersey, he blasted New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and threatened to pull federal funding from the MTA, which oversees the NYC subway.
“If you want people to take the train, to take transit, then make it safe, make it clean, make it beautiful, make it wonderful, don’t make it a s— h—, which is what she (Hochul) has done,” Duffy said in March, as NJ.com reported. “She could fix it in hours, not days, not weeks, and she chooses not to.”
He also insisted eliminating crime in the NYC subways, which stretch for 665 miles, is “simple.”
“This could be a non-issue, send law enforcement in, kick out the homeless, get rid of the drugs, put cops on the beat, making sure there is no violence, make sure people aren’t afraid of being punched or stabbed or pushed in front of a train,” Duffy said. “This isn’t hard — law enforcement is simple.”
READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
According to the MTA, 5.5 million people ride the subways each weekday—nearly 1.7 billion riders annually. There are 472 stations, with the busiest, Times Square, seeing over 65 million riders each year.
In April, Duffy toured the NYC subway with Mayor Eric Adams, denounced the subways as homeless shelters, and again insisted they are unsafe, despite statistics that show crime has dropped by double digits.
The MTA has pushed back strongly.
“Subway crime is down, ridership is up, and congestion pricing is working,” said MTA chief of policy and external relations, John McCarthy, as the New York Post reported. “We look forward to Secretary Duffy wrapping his head around the facts.”
The Post also reported that “NYPD data shows that overall transit crime is down 3% through June 29, compared to the same period last year — 1,051 incidents to 1,083.”
Critics blasted Secretary Duffy.
“Millions of people ride the subway every day, and every one of them is braver than Sean Duffy, apparently,” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
“Millions of people safely ride the subways every day. Just saying,” declared Ken Lovett, a senior advisor to Governor Hochul and a former MTA senior advisor. “And the subways have always, and continue to be, a great equalizer, allowing those who can’t afford cars in NYC to get to their jobs, schools, or groceries.”
Another social media user asked, “Serious question- what role does the federal Secretary of Transportation have regarding local crime?”
Adrian Benepe, a senior executive with a career in government and non-profits, asked, “You scared to ride the subways, son? 5 million people—unarmed men, women and children—ride @NYCTSubway every day. Come to NYC and we will ride together so we can make sure scary bad guys don’t get you.”
David Neary, a filmmaker and archivist added, “There are very few things I do on a daily basis that feel more safe than riding the subway.”
Amateur historian and native New Yorker Russell Drew wrote, “The fact that Sean Duffy is a Cabinet member shows how far we’ve fallen. It used to be that Cabinet members showed professionalism and restraint. Now they go on Fox News to call Americans ‘stupid.’ Unprecedented partisanship. Unprecedented nastiness.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Sean Duffy on Fox: “It’s dangerous to ride the subway in New York … it’s just stupid liberals with stupid policies that impact the lives of New Yorkers” pic.twitter.com/Y5RnePMgpF
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2025
READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms
Image via Shutterstock
An increasingly “anxious” White House is lashing out at Democrats and the media, accusing them—without providing evidence—of blaming President Donald Trump for the catastrophic Texas floods that have killed over 90 people, including many children.
Critics are questioning whether cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) by the Trump administration hampered accurate forecasting and slowed emergency warnings. Others point to failures by local officials to communicate timely alerts to the flood-stricken area along the Guadalupe River.
“Former federal officials and outside experts have warned for months that President Donald Trump’s deep staffing cuts to the National Weather Service could endanger lives,” the Associated Press reported Monday afternoon. “The Trump administration has cut hundreds of jobs at NWS, with staffing down by at least 20% at nearly half of the 122 NWS field offices nationally and at least a half dozen no longer staffed 24 hours a day. Hundreds more experienced forecasters and senior managers were encouraged to retire early.”
READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
“The website for the NWS office for Austin/San Antonio, which covers the region that includes hard-hit Kerr County, shows six of 27 positions are listed as vacant,” the AP also reported, noting, however, that there were the usual number of staff members on hand the night of the flood.
Now, veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen writes that the White House is “very anxious that administration/DOGE massive staffing cuts to national weather service and related agencies not be seen as connected to flooding deaths in Texas, inadequate warning.”
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday, in a letter to Roderick Anderson, the Commerce Department’s acting inspector general, urged him to immediately “open an investigation into the scope, breadth, and ramifications of whether staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service (NWS) stations contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding,” The Hill reported.
“He noted that The New York Times reported that key forecasting and coordination positions at the San Antonio and San Angelo offices of the NWS were vacant at the time of the Friday storm,” The Hill also reported. “Those local offices were missing a warning coordination meteorologist, a science officer and a senior hydrologist, among other ‘vital forecasting, meteorology and coordination roles.'”
Only once in Schumer’s letter does he mention Trump, and it is not to blame him for the flooding.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday strongly suggested Senator Schumer was indeed directly blaming Trump for the flooding.
READ MORE: ‘What First Amendment?’: 140 EPA Workers Suspended After Opposing Trump Agenda
“Unfortunately, in the wake of this once in a generation natural disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer and some members of the media. Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” Leavitt told reporters (video below).
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Monday also falsely claimed that President Trump is being blamed for natural disasters, telling reporters, “you see that with a hurricane, with a tornado, with a wildfire, with this flooding, where people immediately say, ‘Well, the hurricane is Donald Trump’s fault.'”
Critics pushed back at the White House.
“Nobody is blaming Trump for the floods,” wrote journalist and environmentalist Michael Dominowski. “But he did decimate National Weather Service forecast offices, despite being told doing so would hamper the agency’s ability to accurately predict storms. He did it anyway. Look at what happened. Cause/effect is a thing.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Leavitt: Unfortunately in the wake of this once in a generation national disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats, such as Schumer and members of the media. Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie pic.twitter.com/eOB4tk3xSh
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 7, 2025
READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms
‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods
‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC
‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan
‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan
‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC
‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods
Ted Cruz Blasted for Defending Trump, Dodging Questions on Flood Warning System Failures
‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
News1 day ago‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech
News21 hours ago‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods
News1 day agoTed Cruz Blasted for Defending Trump, Dodging Questions on Flood Warning System Failures
News1 hour ago‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan