Think Progress just posted a video of Barack Obama discussing the bi-national couples deported by the Defense of Marriage Act and his thoughts that DOMA will be repealed soon and not within years, seeing as there are several court cases challenging the anti-gay law.
Here’s a paraphrase of Obama’s thoughts:
Once that law is struck down — and I don’t know what the ruling will be — then addressing these binational issues could flow from that decision potentially. I can’t comment on where the case is going to go. I can only say what I believe and that is that DOMA doesn’t make sense, it’s unfair. I don’t think that it meets the demands of our Constitution… I’ve also said that I’m also supportive of Congress repealing DOMA on its own and not waiting for the courts. The likelihood of us being able to get the House of representatives for DOMA repeal are very low at this point. So truthfully, the recourse to the courts is probably going to be the best approach.
Will DOMA soon go the way of DADT? It seems imminent.
Hyhybt
Imminent, perhaps… perhaps not. But there are degrees of “imminent” anyway. What’s the quickest a court high enough to make it stick could make such a ruling, starting where things are now?
Little Kiwi
WERK! great progress. i wanna marry my American Man.
rf
At least one of the legal scholars on SCOTUSBlog, I think he’s the dean of law at UC Davis predicts that DOMA or at least DOMA section 3, which stops the federal government from recognizing SSMs from states that have them, will come down by the end of 2012. The first two DOMA cases are in the appeals process now so once that’s done, then SCOTUS decides if they want to take them (they’ve been rolled up into one case).
PS
“The likelihood of us being able to get the House of representatives for DOMA repeal are very low at this point.”
Obama had two years before Republicans took control of the House to address this issue and he left it alone. Meanwhile, his policies of endless spending brought the House back to Republican control. So, he should stop blaming others and accept the fact that his first two years went into other things. I guess he forgets how upset the LGBT community was with him during the first two years.
Cam
Gee, and yet HRC attacked all of the lawsuits against DADT and DOMA saying that we needed to let our “Friends” in Congress and the White House do these things for us.
Now those “Friends” are sitting back and saying, leave it to the courts.
How many more times to the people at HRC have to be wrong before they can finally admit to themselves that they don’t know how anything works?
the crustybastard
But I thought everything had to be repealed legislatively for it to be lasting and secure?
Atlas
Hmm, I bet there won’t be a big push from him to repeal it until after (if) he’s reelected.
Erik
@rf: Kind of unlikely that it’ll be settled by the end of next year, considering the court just started it’s 2011-2012 session and no DOMA case has been accepted by, or even petitioned to, the Supreme Court yet. None have even been argued yet at the appellate level. The soonest we’ll see an opinion from the high court on DOMA would be spring or summer 2013, with 2014 perhaps more likely.
Red Meat
If Obama loses in 2012, we will have to wait 4 more years for a potentially gay friendly president. If one of those cray-cray republican wins in 2012 you know they will be a one term president.
Reason
@PS: it is not about blamining others, he is saying how it is. DOMA didn’t have the support for repeal, there was to many blue dogs plus the entire republican caccus to block DOMA repeal. They also lost the supermajority in the senate before the two years were up, but it wouldn’t have passed anyways with an election season coming. I am sure if they had a crystal ball and realized their seats would have been lost anyways those blue dog dems would have done the right thing, granted they didn’t it would have been imprudent to behave otherwise. The president being aware that the likelihood of it getting through this republican controlled house and though a senate way short of 60 dems he did the awesome and had his justice department state that it is unconstitutional. With the excutive branch deeming DOMA unconstitutional a liberal judge is bound to rule it unconstitutional forcing the showdown to head to the supreme court. I really don’t know how the supreme court can justify not scrapping DOMA because we all know the defenses for DOMA are B.S. which is why the house is hiding there defense in court from the public. Even with a conservative court they do have some amount of integrity and pride, they are not going to do something that is going to make them look completely incompetent in history. You can make significant arguments on abortion, but DOMA is just pure discrimination and even Joe know nothing can see that even if they don’t admit it. This president may make huge strides for us in his first term alone, if he can get another one we may see the day when we are equal under the law.
ewe
So just keep waiting and OH don’t forget to vote. Today is September 29, 2011. Does anyone know whether or not the Bummer has evolved yet? For real.
James
You fags kill me.I wonder what you’re going to do if he’s not re-elected. Who will you bitch about then?
ewe
@James: You phoney Christian atheists kill me. I wonder what you’re going to do if he’s not re-elected. Who will you bitch about then?
Vincent
@PS:
Endless spending? Get real! Have you ever read an economics book? EVERY American president since the Great Depression has increased spending during a recession. People like you are brainwashed by the FoxNews crew. Go look at an economic history of the U.S. 70% of the U.S. deficit was run up under Republican presidents.
People like you like to ignore the HUGE spending by Bush for an un-financed War on Terror. You also over look Bush’s wasteful tax cuts for the rich that did nothing to spur job growth. You also don’t even understand that Bush pushed Medicare Part D without paying for it. And, you also don’t even understand that TARP, the bailout for banks, was passed in 2008 under Bush.
Go back and look at the record. Obama’s stimulus plan did help but it was too small. As economists like Noble prize winner Paul Krugman noted in 2009, the stimulus effect would start to fade away by the end of 2010.
Hard cold facts. Do some research. Look into 1937 when the U.S., in the midst of the recovery from the Depression cut back on spending and tried to decrease the deficit; it caused the U.S. to fall back into financial peril.
The Republicans are masters of spin. People will believe that crap is chocolate cake and eat it up. I hope it tastes good because you’ve obviously had a big slice or three.
As for DOMA, get real. There was no support for its repeal in 2009. In the midsts of the 800K jobs being lost a month, there was no will for any kind of gay rights support. Bill Clinton tried being the great gay rights hero right after his election. That LED to DADT and DOMA.
Instead, Obama passed the Matthew Shepard-James Bird Hate Crimes bill in 2010 and ended DADT in 2011. No other president has overseen as much pro-gay reform as Obama has.
He might not be perfect but he’s a 1000x better than any Republican candidate. As you’ll recall both McCain and Palin took anti-gay positions on every thing.
Good luck in 2013 if a Republican gets in office.
ewe
@James: and mind your own damn business with your derogatory statements about the sexual orientation of gay people. You have no right to get so damn personal with people you don’t know and your ugly heart is already cold and dead inside. Stay out of the private affairs of minority people. You have no clue.
reason
@Vincent: The Obama stimulus actually worked as intended, it brought wall street and the business community back to profitability. The business community has been more profitably than ever under this administration. Jobs historically have lagged behind market recoveries. The naked truth is that government cannot create jobs, that has to come from the marketplace. Looking at the profits it is safe to say that the government had done its job in creating the environment for job creation. There was some miscalculations in the depth of the disaster that he inherited, but other factors outside of this government are responsible for the jobless crises. Also in a globalized economy factors from around the world can put significant drag on our economy. The difference in this recession is that the business community is no longer loyal to the American people. Why might you ask, well becuase they no longer need us to turn profits. Boeing doesn’t need to pay people in Seattle to assemble planes when they can have the parts made cheaper in a host of other countries around the world. Paul Krugman is trapped in a different time, factors that have stalled out recoveries in the past are not as relevant in our present day global marketplace. There is no evidence that flooding more money into the economy two years ago would have made any difference. Now that the economy is actually slowing again a measured cash infusion may spark the business recovery back into movement but that still doesn’t guarantee any change in the poor job situation. The other thing that can be done is to continue easing corporate regulation, but ultimately a job recovery is beyond the scope of government. The inherent problem is greed, although it helped build this country, ultimately it may end up destroying it. The global corporate world is now in charge, the wolf has gained control of the hen house. The government is left fighting to appease the new masters, and hope that they throw some crumbs back to the citizens.
Robert in NYC
No. 14, Vincent, exactly right. Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times. I love it when these GOPers, Tea Partyers and Civil Libertarians (the latter all republicans of course) praise Reagan and want to go back to that era, yet by Tea Party standards, he wouldn’t pass muster, in fact he’d be labeled a liberal.
Nos. 10 and 16, I totally agree.
the crustybastard
In the unlikely event a court strikes down DOMA during his term, I’m certain that Obama would work diligently to have that decision overturned on appeal.
Just like he did with the military gay ban.
Contemptible, treacherous, loathsome motherfucker.
Dave
@18 I agree. Let’s also not forget at how with DADT at first the Obama administration edited out the most important part of the bill the non-discrimination clause which in effect would have done nothing to help the rights of bisexual, gay, and lesbian military personnel.