[G]ay and lesbian individuals who unite in matrimony are denied no federal benefits to which they were entitled prior to their marriage; they remain eligible for every benefit they enjoyed beforehand...
DOMA does not discriminate against homosexuals in the provision of federal benefits. To the contrary, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited in federal employment and in a wide array of federal benefits programs by law, regulation, and Executive order.
Suppose that after the Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia
(requiring all states to allow inter-racial marriages, because not doing so violated
the rights of the inter-racial couples who wanted to get married),
Congress had responded with a federal law saying that the NATIONAL government,
UNlike the states, was NOT bound by the 14th amendment, and that joint federal
income tax filings, social security survivor payments, and other federal benefits
of marriage would NOT be available to inter-racial married couples
(who, for federal purposes, would NOT even BE married).
THEN we would've had,
RE-quoting the brief with ONLY the group/identity changed:
Individuals of different races who unite in matrimony are denied no federal benefits to which they were entitled prior to their marriage; they remain eligible for every benefit they enjoyed beforehand...
[Federal non-recognition of inter-racial marriages] does not discriminate against spouses of different races in the provision of federal benefits. To the contrary, discrimination on the basis of race is prohibited in federal employment and in a wide array of federal benefits programs by law, regulation, and Executive order.
Do we really need to belabor the point that Nobody
who is himself the son of an inter-racial marriage
COULD POSSIBLY BELIEVE the above?
Do we really need to entertain the possiblity that Somebody with the debate and logic skills necessary to edit the Harvard Law Review could somehow FAIL to perceive the EXACTITUDE of the relevant ANALOGY here??
Worried gay activists need to at least consider the possibility that
the Obama DoJ INTENTIONALLY FILED A BAD brief, knowing that this line of reasoning is dismissable along lines ANALOGOUS to Loving, and that's what they WANT to happen.