Politics & Government

McCollum on Defense of Marriage Act Supreme Court Ruling: 'Victory for Love and Equality'

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, who represents Woodbury in the 4th Congressional District, lauded the U.S. Supreme Court's decision.

Six weeks after Minnesota became the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

“Today is a victory for love and equality over blatant discrimination,” Congresswoman Betty McCollum, who represents Woodbury, said in a statement. “This ruling will afford legally married same-sex spouses all of the federal rights and benefits afforded to opposite-sex married couples.”

The high court ruled twice in favor of same-sex marriage advocates Wednesday morning, saying the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was in direct violation of the Constitution and ruling that California’s Proposition 8 case had been decided by lower courts, dismissing the appeal.

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The decision paves way for couples to share in benefits bestowed by federal tax codes to couples married in states that recognize same-sex marriage.

“For same-sex couples who will soon be married in Minnesota, this decision is a victory for equality,” McCollum said. “Still, I am reminded that there is more work to do to guarantee all LGBT Americans equal rights and full marriage equality in all 50 states.”

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Starting Aug. 1, Minnesota will recognize same-sex unions. Legislation passed by the Minnesota House and Senate and was signed into law May 12.  

Meanwhile, conservative 6th District Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann said God, not the Supreme Court, defines marriage.

“No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted,” Bachmann wrote in a statement to the press. “What the Court has done will undermine the best interest of children and the best interests of the United States.”

President Barack Obama, who aligned with the State Judicial Department to defend DOMA when he first took office, reversed course in 2011, asking the DOMA to stop taking on cases challenging the act.

Wednesday, June 26, the president said he was in favor of the SCOTUS decision.

"When all Americans are treated as equal—no matter who they are or whom they love—we are all more free,” Obama stated via social media.

The Twin Cities GLBT population will celebrate the decisions—both that of the Supreme Court and this year’s legislation in Minnesota—this weekend in Minneapolis with Gay Pride weekend. A complete schedule can be found here.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the decision for the majority:

“By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”  

He was joined in the majority by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The Proposition 8 decision was written by Chief Justice John Roberts:

“We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “We decline to do so for the first time here.”



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