What Will The Administration Do About DOMA?

by Patrick Appel

Ambinder reported on Friday that Obama is in no rush. Jim Burroway wants the administration to appeal and for the case to go all the way to the Supreme Court:

There are only three ways to get rid of DOMA nationwide. Barring appeals by Obama’s Department of Justice, the first option is to get another forty-nine sets of similar rulings by federal judges in forty-nine more states. While it’s true that these Massachusetts rulings would serve as a precedent for subsequent rulings by other federal judges, those judges aren’t bound by them in the same way they would be a Supreme Court ruling. So the practical message the Obama administration would be sending if they chose not to appeal this case would be, “Congratulations, now go win 49 more. (And keep going if you want D.C., Puerto Rico and the other territories.)” I just don’t see that happening.

Should it get there, Andrew Koppelman thinks the case "has a good chance to squeak by with five votes."

2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan