Symposium discusses gay marriage

Stuffing into the Moot Court Room of the Maurer School of Law on Thursday, students and community members filled the crowded room for a symposium titled “Same-Sex Marriage and the Future of DOMA: Law, Politics, Federalism, and Families.”

The event discussed lawsuits challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

“Today’s lecture is about same-sex marriage but I really hope you find it’s more than that,” said Steve Sanders, a lecturer from the University of Michigan Law School. “It shows how laws really affect our lives. It forces us to think about what our Constitution means in practice.”

Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, filed suit against the Defense of Marriage Act in 2009. Last year, a federal judge ruled that DOMA violates the Constitution’s 10th Amendment and equal protection guarantee, according to an IU press release.

On Feb. 23, the Obama Justice Department announced it agreed that DOMA was unconstitutional and that it would cease defending the Massachusetts case and several other lawsuits against the act.

 On March 10, Speaker John Boehner announced that the House of Representatives would intervene to defend the suits, according to the press release.

Maura Healey, chief of the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, delivered a lecture titled “One State’s Challenge to DOMA.”

“There are now over 16,000 gay couples married in Massachusetts. This has been a very positive development. The marriage rate continues to stay high and our divorce rate remains one of the lowest in the country,” she said.

Healey then went on to discuss what DOMA does for people.

“DOMA makes a national definition of marriage as between a man and a woman and requires no state to observe same-sex marriages from other states,” she said. “DOMA touches every aspect of a person’s life from the time they are born until they die. For example, a spouse is a beneficiary of pension plans.”

Healey discussed how DOMA violates the Constitution.

“DOMA violates the 10th Amendment by taking away the states’ power to define marriage,” she said. “Remember, you get a marriage license from a state, not the federal government.”

She said she believes DOMA is one of the most discriminatory laws.

“It’s the government’s official seal of disapproval on gay people,” Healey said.

The lecture was followed by a panel consisting of Thomas M. Fisher, solicitor general for Indiana; Dawn Johnsen, Walter W. Foskett professor of law at IU; Brian Powell, co-author of “Counted Out: Same-sex Relations and Americans’ Definitions of the Family”; and Deborah Widiss, associate professor at IU Maurer School of Law.

Sanders, who acted as moderator for the event, asked Fisher why Indiana finds flaws with Massachusetts’ stance on DOMA.

“We disclaimed we were weighing in on a host of broader issues. It requires a proper understanding of state and federal laws,” he said. “Courts should rule on the basis of law, not public opinion.”