OBAMA PRESSURED BY BLACKS OVER GAY MARRIAGE

By Leland C. Abraham, Esq.

Groups calling themselves the Coalition against Gay Marriage have sent a letter to President Barack Obama warning him that he may lose a significant percentage of his black supporters if he endorses marriage between same sex couples. The coalition includes the veteran civil rights group Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), concerned pastors and other religious organizations. The group seems to be particularly worried about President Obama’s intentions concerning the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

DOMA was a federal law that was enacted in 1996. There are two main portions of the law. The first part states that no state in the union shall treat a relationship between parties of the same-sex as a marriage. See 1 U.S.C. §7 and 28 U.S.C. §1738C. The Second part states that the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. At the time of its passing, it was feared that Hawaii would allow same-sex marriages by either legislation or judicial recognition. At the time, there was a fear that if same sex couples were married in Hawaii, those marriages would be recognized in the various states of the union. Currently there are three states, Vermont, Massachusetts and Iowa, that recognize same sex marriage. There are three other states, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire that have passed but not implemented legislation to join the list. Some 28 states have enacted amendments to their state constitutions to prohibit same-sex marriage and another twenty states have enacted statutory DOMAs.

President Obama’s political platform included full repeal of DOMA. This engendered support for him in the Gay and Lesbian community. However, on June 12, 2009, the Department of Justice issued a brief in which it defended the constitutionality of DOMA in the case Smelt v. United States of America. This signaled a departure from the campaign promise of the Obama administration. While the administration has taken this stance on DOMA, the administration has been pressured by many gay rights groups to repeal the measure.

The question remains how effective the coalition can be. Most major civil rights organizations either support the gay rights agenda or have remained officially neutral. While opponents to DOMA argue that the measure violates the Due Process clause and the Equal Protection clause of the constitution, supporters argue that DOMA is constitutionally sound and that it is a legitimate exercise of Congressional power under the Full Faith and Credit Clause and that is does not violate either the Due Process clause or the Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution. Challenges to DOMAs constitutionality have made its way to the US Supreme Court. So far, the Court has refused to hear those challenges.

So far, President Obama has not softened the administration’s stance on DOMA. If the administration does relent on its current view of DOMA, it will be interesting to see how the coalition will voice its opposition.

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