Great news from Monday, c/o the ABA Journal:
The ABA policy-making House of Delegates passed by an overwhelming voice vote a resolution calling on Congress to repeal a section of the Defense of Marriage Act that denies federal marital benefits and protections to lawfully married same-sex couples.
Despite the controversial nature of same-sex marriage, no one spoke in opposition to the measure itself.
“This is a very modest recommendation, some would even say a conservative recommendation,” said Estelle Rogers, a lawyer who is a consultant on civil rights and civil liberties issues in Washington, D.C.
The measure neither favors nor opposes civil marriage for same-sex couples, she said. It merely urges the federal government to recognize the rights provided by states which allow for such marriages, she said.
This non-controversial vote should help show the mainstream nature of repealing DOMA’s Section 3, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages permitted in certain states.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political & legal reporter at BuzzFeed and has written for Metro Weekly, The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. He has appeared regularly on television commenting on current affairs, including MSNBC, PBS, HLN & Current. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found