From The Advocate:
A federal judge has ruled unconstitutional a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act that prohibits the federal government from recognizing gay marriages...
...While the federal challenge to Proposition 8 currently before a San Francisco judge makes broader claims regarding the unconstitutional nature of state laws barring marriage rights for same-sex couples, GLAD’s lawsuit was a precise attack on DOMA, targeting just one section of the law — Section 3 — that limits the definition of marriage, for all federal purposes, to one man and one woman.
During oral arguments in May, GLAD attorney Mary Bonauto told U.S. district judge Joseph Tauro that DOMA constitutes a “classic equal protection” violation for gay couples who are legally married in Massachusetts. “It takes one class of married people in the commonwealth,” she said, “and divides it into two.”
