Posted Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 by HLPR blog editorial staff
Defending DOMA
A few weeks ago on this blog, Marshall Thompson noted the administration’s continued judicial defense of the Defense of Marriage Act and asked whether this was a good idea. President Obama opposes the act, which requires the federal government to define marriage as the legal union of a man and a woman. The New York Times recently raised the same question, strongly urging the administration to abandon the effort.
Noah Kaplan has written a thoughtful response to the editorial on the blog of our peer journal, the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He argues that Obama could set a dangerous precedent by ordering the Department of Justice not to defend the act. Our own Jason Harrow responds in the comments. The post is definitely worth a look, as is the entire CRCL blog.
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I appreciate the HLPR helping to expand the realm of this debate. As peers at HLS, these types of discussions are part of our daily experience. Now that HLPR Blog and CRCL Amicus are allowing us to take those discussions to a wider audience, I think it’s important that we use that platform to challenge traditional media outlets when we question their analysis. Thanks for the link and the comments on the post, and I look forward to many similar discussions in the future.