U.S. District Judge Allows Another DOMA Lawsuit to Proceed

A U. S. District Court judge has ruled that California couples can proceed with a lawsuit they filed in April against the U.S. Treasury Department and the California Public Employees' Retirement System ("CalPERS") challenging the Federal Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA") and a section of the Internal Revenue Code that prohibits same-sex spouses from receiving favorable tax treatment for insurance plans. It will be interesting to see what directives our faux "fierce advocate" in the White House gives to the Department of Justice inasmuch as the Court held that DOMA was not a bar to the action against CalPERS. Unfortunately, I suspect we will witness more of Obama disingenuously speaking out of both sides of his mouth saying in one breath that he supports LGBT civil equality and then in the next defending discriminatory laws. He simply cannot have it both ways and to me, his actions in defending DOMA tells the true story. The San Jose Mercury has coverage of the case and these are highlights:
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Three married gay and lesbian couples in which one partner is a state employee have won an important step in their fight for the equal right to buy long-term care insurance from the state's pension system. In a ruling issued on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland said the couples can proceed with a lawsuit they filed in April against the U.S. Treasury Department and the California Public Employees' Retirement System, known as CalPERS.
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Wilken said that two federal laws used to deny the same-sex spouses the right to buy long-term care insurance "do not bear a rational relationship to a legitimate government interest." The two laws are the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage, and a section of the Internal Revenue Code that prohibits same-sex spouses from receiving favorable tax treatment for insurance plans.
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Wilken did not explicitly strike down the DOMA law, but said it could not be used as a basis for dismissing the lawsuit. She turned down a bid by the U.S. Justice Department for dismissal and said the case can go to trial.
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Claudia Center, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called Wilken's decision "a key legal victory" and said the couples hope to use the case to make the CalPERS insurance available to all same-sex spouses and domestic partners of state workers. Center said the plaintiffs' next steps will be to seek to add two same-sex domestic partners to the case and have the lawsuit declared a class action. She said that sometime this summer, the plaintiffs will ask Wilken to issue a summary judgment in their favor without a trial.