NOM BLOG

GOP Senators Weigh in on DOMA Fight Before the 9th Circuit

 

Law.com:

"Nothing in Supreme Court jurisprudence, the senators contend, "authorizes a court to strike down an otherwise constitutional law based on the belief that legislators individually, or the Congress as a whole, were motivated by 'animus,'" states the brief, which is signed by Michael Stern of Fairfax, Va.

"Judicial 'psychoanalysis' of legislative motives, to use Justice Cardozo's phrase, is a highly subjective exercise, which threatens needless friction between the branches," the brief continues. "Scouring the congressional record for 'sound-bites' to divine and disparage the motives of individual legislators also chills the freedom of legislative speech that is the hallmark of robust democratic debate."

In a footnote, the senators added that they didn't appreciate White's comparison of the arguments for DOMA with historical arguments against interracial marriage, either.

Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when DOMA was passed, received written assurances from the Clinton Justice Department that the legislation was constitutional, the brief states."

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