SCOTUS Gets Fourth DOMA Challenge

The Supreme Court has been asked for the fourth time to uphold a lower court's ruling to overturn DOMA. Chris Geidner reports:

Today's filing by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, called a petition for a writ of certiorari, asks the Supreme Court to consider the appeal of a case it won at the trial court level on behalf of Joanne Pedersen and several others impacted by DOMA's definition of "marriage" and "spouse" as being limited only to marriages between one man and one woman.

In their case, a federal trial-court judge in Connecticut decided in July "that no conceivable rational basis exists" for DOMA's federal definition of marriage. GLAD had argued successfully that DOMA, which prevents legally married same-sex couples from receiving federal recognition of those marriages, "violates the equal protection principles" guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

Geidner notes that like two of the other DOMA cases presented to the Supreme Court for consideration, the above case has not been considered by a federal appeals court. GLAD is taking it right from the state level to the top.