McCollum Lauds Supreme Court Striking Down DOMA, Dismissing Prop 8

(This story was written by Patch Associate Regional Editor Mike Schoemer with contributions from Roseville Editor Scott Carlson)

Six weeks after Minnesota became the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

Prominent Minnesota Democrats like U.S. representatives Betty McCollum, whose district includes Roseville, and Keith Ellison lauded the decision. But Republican Michele Bachmann was among conservatives criticizing the ruling. 

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled twice in favor of same-sex marriage advocates Wednesday morning, stating the Defense of Marriage Act was in direct violation of the United States Constitution and ruling that California’s Proposition 8 case had been decided by lower courts, dismissing the appeal.

The historic decision on the federal DOMA paves way for couples to share in hundreds of benefits bestowed by federal tax codes to couples married in states that recognize same-sex marriage.

“Today is a victory for love and equality over blatant discrimination,” Congresswoman McCollum said in a statement. “This ruling will afford legally married same-sex spouses all of the federal rights and benefits afforded to opposite-sex married couples..

“For same-sex couples who will soon be married in Minnesota, this decision is a victory for equality,” McCollum added . “Still, I am reminded that there is more work to do to guarantee all LGBT Americans equal rights and full marriage equality in all 50 states.”

The dismissal of Proposition 8 serves as a victory for so-called gay marriage advocates out west as it clears the way for same-sex couples to continue to marry in California, coming five years after that state passed an amendment to the state constitution not recognizing those unions

Minnesota joins that list in a little more than month, Aug. 1., when the state government will recognize same-sex unions. Legislation passed the Minnesota House and Senate and was signed into law on May 12.  

“So proud,” Tweeted Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota’s Fifth District, “the Supreme Court put America one step further on the path to marriage equality by overturning DOMA.”

Ellison in the past has likened the march for gay marriage rights to the 1960s civil rights movement.

Meanwhile, Sixth District Rep. Bachmann said God, not the Supreme Court, defines marriage.

“No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted,” Bachmann wrote in a statement to the press. “What the Court has done will undermine the best interest of children and the best interests of the United States."

Isaac Schultz, a Roseville Republican and 2013 graduate of Northwestern College, said he wasn't pleased the high court struck down the DOMA in California. He supports the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. 

But Schultz was encouraged the Supreme Court seemed to affirm the rights of each state to determine how to handle and define marriage. That seems like good news for some 30 states which have defined marriage as being between only one man and one woman, he siad. 

Meanwhile, what impact the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling has on states is something "we will have to wait and see," Schultz said.  

President Barack Obama, who aligned with the State Judicial Department to defend DOMA when he first took office, reversed course in 2011, asking the DOMA to stop taking on cases challenging the act.

Today, the president said, he was in favor of the SCOTUS decision.

"When all Americans are treated as equal—no matter who they are or whom they love—we are all more free,” Obama stated via social media.

The Twin Cities GLBT population will celebrate the decisions –both that of the Supreme Court and this year’s legislation in Minnesota – this weekend in Minneapolis with Gay Pride weekend. A complete schedule can be found here.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the decision for the majority, writing that “By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”  

He was joined in the majority by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The Proposition 8 decision was written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

“We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “We decline to do so for the first time here.”