Here’s the latest on Wednesday’s Supreme Court session on the Defense of Marriage Act:
[Updated at 1:20 p.m. ET]
“I’m very optimistic that DOMA will be struck down. It has no rational basis for being,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said just now. Pelosi was at the Supreme Court to hear arguments over DOMA and California’s Proposition 8 over the past two days.
Pelosi’s district has been at the epicenter of gay rights for decades. She called the oral arguments at the Supreme Court “thrilling.”
[Updated at 1:01 p.m. ET]
According to CNN Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears, the court appeared divided along ideological lines about whether DOMA is discriminatory and steps on state marriage laws for gays and lesbians.
If legally married homosexuals were being denied more than 1,100 federal benefits, “What kind of marriage is that?” asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She said the discriminatory effect was “pervasive.”
But when Windsor’s lawyer argued in court there was a “sea change” afoot today in support of same-sex marriage that leaves DOMA outdated, Chief Justice John Roberts said that was because of “the political effectiveness of those on your side” swaying public opinion.
Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia suggested DOMA could still remain in place as a valid extension of congressional authority. Forty-one states do not allow same-sex marriage.
The potential swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, said DOMA presents a “real risk of running into traditional state police power to regulate marriage.”
