The North wind doth blow,
and we shall have snow
and what will poor Robin do then,
poor thing?

You’ve probably seen the news reports that a second federal appeals court has struck down an important clause in DOMA, barring the US federal government from recognizing same - sex marriages conducted in states or foreign jurisdictions where they have been approved - following a wole string of lower court decisions that have gone the same way. At Bilgrimage,noting that the judgement was written by a judicial conservative, Bill Lindsey describes this as big and important news, linking to a number of commentators who have weighed in on the significance.

This is indeed big news, important news - and entirely predictable. To my inexpert, foreign eyes, it is becoming clearer every day that SCOTUS will have no choice but to weigh in on this clause of DOMA - and will inevitably be compelled to agree with the growing string of lower courts that have struck it down. Way to go!

But the Washington Post religion page has come up with another, fascinating angle that is new to me: in the written judgement (and let us recall, as you note, that this was a conservative judge), there is a strong distinction drawn between “marriage” (in civil law) and “matrimony”.

This reinforces the separation of church and state argument for (civil) marriage equality, undermines the argument that equality threatens freedom of religion - and makes it ever more difficult for the opponents to introduce religious or pseudo- religious arguments to make their case. We’ve already seen (eg in the Californian Prop 8 case, and others) that they are unable to convince the courts on scientific evidence, because there is none. Deprived of the religious argument, what will they be left with?

There will still be more throws of the dice before this is settled once and for all, but DOMA is patently doomed.

In the US and elsewhere, Catholic bishops have tried to use the “religious freedom” argument in a futile attempt to impose their religious views on all others, including those of religious groups whol would want to celebrate marriage ceremonies on a basis free of gender or orientation discrimination. For these bishops, and the other forces of the religious right, it’s a cold wind a-blowing.

……and what will poor robin/ Rome do then, poor thing?

She’ll sit in a barn,
to keep herself warm,
and hide her head under her wing.

Poor thing.

Related articles

• Today’s DOMA Decision (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Second Circuit’s DOMA Decision: A Road Map for SCOTUS? (blogs.wsj.com)
• Marriage Equality: Federal Appeals Court Rules On DOMA (politicalsocialworker.wordpress.com)
• US marriage law struck down again (bbc.co.uk)
• DOMA is doomed - Washington Post (blog) (washingtonpost.com)