CBS News is reporting today that President Obama has instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the Constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, the law which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
The article quotes the following statement from Attorney General Eric Holder:
""After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny," he said. "The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President's determination.""
I am not a lawyer, but does the President have the power to declare a law unconstitutional?
The article reports more of the Attorney General's statement:
""The Department has a longstanding practice of defending the constitutionality of duly-enacted statutes if reasonable arguments can be made in their defense," he said. "At the same time, the Department in the past has declined to defend statutes despite the availability of professionally responsible arguments, in part because - as here - the Department does not consider every such argument to be a 'reasonable' one.""
If this is legal, I am surprised. I was under the impression that it was the responsibility of the Supreme Court to rule on the Constitutionality of law--not the President.
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