DOMA's day in Court

Yesterday, GLAD challenged DOMA in court.

The case is widely considered the first serious legal challenge in the nation to the Defense of Marriage Act, and puts the Obama administration in the awkward position of defending a law that it says it opposes but believes is constitutional.

Mary L. Bonauto, a lawyer for the Boston-based nonprofit Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, argued in US District Court that the federal government had always let states decide who was legally married until it passed the law in question.

“Your honor, the only thing that changed here was who was going to marry,’’ Bonauto told US District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro. Bonauto also led the lawsuit that resulted in the landmark 2003 decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court legalizing gay marriage in Massachusetts.

Bonauto said that because of the law, the federal government treats the plaintiffs — seven gay and lesbian couples and three men whose husbands have died — as second-class citizens. They are ineligible for numerous federal benefits that heterosexual couples receive, including health insurance for spouses of federal employees, retirement and survivor benefits under the Social Security Act, and eligibility to file joint federal income tax returns.

The DOJ did defend DOMA, but admitted the policy is wrong.

W. Scott Simpson, a Justice Department lawyer defending the government, countered that the Obama administration agrees that the federal law is discriminatory and supports its repeal. But Simpson said the department is obliged to follow the longstanding practice of defending federal laws signed by previous presidents as long as the statutes are constitutional, which, he contends, the Defense of Marriage Act is.

“This presidential administration disagrees with DOMA as a matter of policy and would like to see it repealed,’’ he said, in a courtroom overflowing with supporters of gay marriage, including the 17 plaintiffs, who were allowed to sit in the jury box. “But that does not affect its constitutionality.’’

After the case, Mary L. Bonauto spoke to the press:

source