http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/02/22/430779/breaking-bush-appointee-finds-doma-unconstitutional/
*BREAKING: BUSH APPOINTEE FINDS DOMA UNCONSTITUTIONAL<http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/02/22/430779/breaking-bush-appointee-finds-doma-unconstitutional/> | *Moments ago, Judge Jeffery White of the District Court for the Northern District of California ruled <https://twitter.com/#!/LambdaLegal> that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause in a case brought by Karen Golinski. Golinski, represented by Lambda Legal, “was denied spousal health benefits<http://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/golinski-v-us-office-personnel-management> by her employer, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.” White was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush in 2002. The decision represents a serious setback for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), whose Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) defended DOMA after the Obama administration announced it would no longer defend the law. Read the full judgement at: http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/doma-opinion.pdf The Court has ruled that considerations of discrimination against people based on sexual orientation should be held to heightened scrutiny for all four factors that determine such scrutiny: HISTORY OF DISCRIMINATION: The first factor courts consider is whether the class has suffered a history of discrimination. There is no dispute in the record that lesbians and gay men have experienced a long history of discrimination. ABILITY TO CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY: Similarly, there is no dispute in the record or the law that sexual orientation has no relevance to a person’s ability to contribute to society. IMMUTABILITY: Regardless of the evidence that a tiny percentage of gay men or lesbians may experience some flexibility along the continuum of their sexuality or the scientific consensus that sexual orientation is unchangeable, the Court finds persuasive the holding in the Ninth Circuit that sexual orientation is recognized as a defining and immutable characteristic because it is so fundamental to one’s identity. POLITICAL POWERLESSNESS: The Court finds that the unequivocal evidence demonstrates that, although not completely politically powerless, the gay and lesbian community lacks meaningful political power… Although this factor is not an absolute prerequisite for heightened scrutiny, the Court finds the evidence and the law support the conclusion that gay men and lesbians remain a politically vulnerable minority. -- -- ADITYA BONDYOPADHYAY Development Sector Consultant Advocate (Regd. No. F-218/192 of 1997, Bar Council of W.Bengal, India) Website: http://adityabondyopadhyay.webs.com/ ================================ Notice to all recipients: Communication not intended for you but reaching you inadvertently needs to be treated as confidential and destroyed or deleted immediately. Use of such communication in a manner prejudicial to the interest of Aditya Bondyopadhyay and/or his principals, and/or his clients, and/or his agents respectively, may attract legal proceedings which may be of a civil or criminal nature. Aditya Bondyopadhyay and/or his principals, and/or his clients, and/or his agents respectively cannot be held liable or accountable for any and every communication reaching out through this email account that is an unaltered forward of another communication received by this email account, or a referred source available on the internet and accessible to the public.
