A federal judge in Manhattan joined a growing chorus of judges across the country Wednesday by striking down a key component of a federal law denying benefits to partners in a gay marriage.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones said the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s efforts to define marriage “intrude upon the states’ business of regulating domestic relations.”
“That incursion skirts important principles of federalism and therefore cannot be legitimate, in this court’s view,” the judge said.
Judge Jones said the law fails because it tries to re-examine states’ decisions concerning same-sex marriage. She said such a sweeping review interferes with a system of government that places matters at the core of the domestic relations law exclusively within the province of the states.
-full report at Wall Street Journal
Related articles
- DOMA Has To Go (politicalsocialworker.wordpress.com)
- 83-year-old woman wins case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (rawstory.com)
- NY Judge: Anti-Gay Marriage Law Unconst. (time.com)
