Kate Kendell: DOMA Is Doomed

"I agree with most of the commentary so far: it looks like DOMA is doomed. Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor made plain their view that the federal government's refusal to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples simply because they are same-sex couples is not justified by any legitimate rationale. Justice Kennedy, the fifth and deciding vote, also expressed the clear view that DOMA harms children. Protecting the children in same-sex headed households clearly weighs on Kennedy—an issue he mentioned multiple times yesterday as well.

"Even Justice Alito—clearly no champion on our issues—talked about "committed and loving same-sex couples" in a moment that stunned me. This is not the language of someone who sees us as an other or an abomination. While Justice Alito may be no friend, his comment at least suggests he views us through a frame of common humanity. What was also telling was the absence of bare bigotry. No statements on either day compared us to pedophiles or murderers. Nobody claimed that states have a right to penalize people for being LGBT (just the pretense by some that Proposition 8 and DOMA do not do so). There was tone of civility and respect. This is a new day in the country's most famous courtroom." - Kate Kendall, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, writing on her blog.