House lawyers under the direction of
Speaker John Boehner plan to ask the Supreme Court to take up an
appeal in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law which defines marriage as a
heterosexual union.
According to gay weekly Metro
Weekly, lawyers for the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group
(BLAG) told a federal court that they would make the request in the
case Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.
A federal appeals court in Boston on
May 31 upheld a lower court's ruling declaring portions of the law
unconstitutional.
In asking the court to put a second
case, Pederson v. Office of Personnel Management, on hold,
House lawyers revealed their plan to ask the Supreme Court to take up
Massachusetts.
“The House now is preparing a
petition for certiorari in the Massachusetts case, a petition
which it intends to file by the end of this month. Massachusetts
is a good candidate for Supreme Court review, as the First Circuit
itself recognized: 'Supreme Court review of DOMA is highly likely.'
If the Supreme Court grants certiorari in Massachusetts,
which we think is likely, the Court likely will docket the case for
briefing, argument and decision during the October 2012 Term,” the
lawyers wrote in their filing.
BLAG has intervened in 12 DOMA-related
cases since President Barack Obama instructed the Department of
Justice to no longer defend the law in court.
(Related: John
Boehner campaigning for gay candidate Richard Tisei.)