GOP/Boehner Appeals DOMA Cases to Supreme Court

The Republican Party quest to keep LGBT Americans inferior under the civil laws seems to never end.  With so many pressing problems facing the United States what do John Boehner and his fellow homophobes/Christianist political whores worry about?  DOMA and keeping our relationships inferior under the law and depriving LGBT couples of the thousand some rights attached to the word "marriage."  And people wonder why I can't be a Republican - not, of course, that there aren't countless other reasons besides the anti-gay agenda of the GOP.   Why would I ever support a party that literally wants to harm me?  The Washington Blade looks at Boehner latest effort to stigmatize and keep gays 4th class citizens as he files an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Court of Appeals rulings that have seen DOMA down in flames as unconstitutional.  Here are highlights:

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) attorneys on Friday formally appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court an appeals court decision determining the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.

Drew Hammill, spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), told the Washington Blade on Friday afternoon Republicans had notified Democratic leadership that House counsel filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The court ruling that was appealed was the First Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the cases of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, which was filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Department of Health & Human Services. On May 31, the appellate court issued a decision that Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage, was unconstitutional as a result of both cases.

In a statement, Pelosi slammed Boehner for continuing to assert the constitutionality of DOMA, saying the appeal is a decision that will “waste more taxpayer funds to advance a position rejected by four different courts and to defend discrimination and inequality before the highest court in the land.”

“Democrats have rejected the Republican assault on equal rights, in the courts and in Congress,” Pelosi said. “We believe there is no federal interest in denying LGBT couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to all couples married under state law. And we are confident that the Supreme Court, if it considers the case, will declare DOMA unconstitutional and relegate it to the dustbin of history once and for all.”

In the filing, Boehner’s attorneys present two questions to the Supreme Court: (1) Whether Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act violates the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment; and (2) Whether the court below erred by inventing and applying to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act a previously unknown standard of equal protection review.

Now that Boehner’s attorneys have filed an appeal, there will be 30 days for plaintiffs to file an opposition to the motion. It would then be left to the court to decide whether to grant cert, or hear the case. There isn’t a timeline for that, but it won’t happen while the court is in summer recess.

Let's be honest.  This appeal represents yet another case of the GOP prostituting itself to the Christofascists and their unrelenting hated of LGBT people who fail to conform to the Christofascists fear and hate based religious beliefs.  The Christofascists simple cannot tolerate any court rulings that diminish their special privileges to persecute gays through the civil laws.  DOMA is in the last analysis religious based discrimination that demands that LGBT couples be afforded unequal treatment under the law.