Yesterday, President Barack Obama informed the nation that his administration will no longer defend the institution of natural marriage - or the law that protects it.
DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) was passed in 1996 with significant bi-partisan majorities in both houses of Congress, and was signed into law by President Clinton. DOMA defines marriage in federal law as the union of one man and one woman.
The president said yesterday that he has instructed his attorney general not to defend this law in court, where it is currently being challenged.
This sets a very dangerous precedent, in which a president decides which federal laws he will defend and which he will not. He has changed our government from the rule of law to the rule of one man.
The Constitution directs the president to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." President Obama took an oath to "preserve, protect and defend" that Constitution, but he's not doing it. He's subverting the Constitution rather than upholding it. He is in clear violation of his oath of office.
The good news is that Congress can intervene and defend this law in court. This creates the possibility that the law will be defended by those who believe in it and support it, rather than by lawyers in Obama's Department of Justice, who up to this point have mounted half-hearted attempts at best to uphold this law.
TAKE ACTIONContact your representative today and urge him to appeal to Speaker John Boehner to mount a vigorous legal defense of DOMA.
