Attacks on federal marriage protections could create ‘legal Armageddon’

Washington D.C., Feb 5, 2009 / 18:31 pm

Radical left-wing Democrats’ attempts to repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) could lead to “rapacious lawsuits” and “legal Armageddon,” one commentator warns.

Niger Innis, who is an advisory board member of Alliance for Marriage and national spokesperson for the Congress of Racial Equality, wrote in the Feb. 4 Washington Times commentary that President Barack Obama should not inflict “great harm” upon the “future of marriage” by allying with those who “falsely invoke” the Civil Rights movement to “radically” change the definition of marriage.

Innis claimed that certain legislators and their media allies are pushing for a repeal of DOMA, which he called the “legal underpinning” of marriage amendments passed in 30 states.

He wrote that DOMA provides federal statutory protection to states against legal efforts to force them to recognize same-sex “marriage” through federal court decisions.

“This statutory protection is now more important than ever, as witnessed by the rapacious lawsuits of radical activists in California,” he argued in the Washington Times. “If federal DOMA falls, every state marriage amendment stands to be overturned by activists in federal court.”

He said an example of the “intense level of legal Armageddon” may be witnessed in California, where in May 2008 the California Supreme Court “voided” the California Defense of Marriage Act passed by voters in 2000.

Even though the successful passage of Proposition 8 in the November 2008 elections reversed the state Supreme Court, that legal status may not hold, Innis warned, because the same justices are deciding upon the constitutionality of Proposition 8.

“A court ruling voiding a second democratic vote on marriage in the nation's most populous state would mark the beginning of the end for democracy in America,” Innis claimed.

He argued that the redefinition of marriage has resulted in freedom of religion, association and conscience being “trampled upon.” He cited the decision of Catholic Charities in Boston to end its adoption services because it could not place children with homosexual couples as required by a new Massachusetts law.

“What happened in Massachusetts is simply a foretaste of what is to come to every state from California to Missouri to Virginia - with or without state constitutional amendments - if federal DOMA falls.”

For this reason, he said the Congress of Racial Equality and the Alliance for Marriage have launched ProtectDOMA.org.

“While the battle over the repeal of federal DOMA may largely go unnoticed among a financially battered and worried general public, its outcome will undoubtedly leave a legacy for future generations well beyond the nation's financial meltdown,” Innis wrote in the Washington Times.