U.S. House Files Memo In Court Supporting DOMA

As previously reported, after the Obama administration announced that it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the U.S. House of Representatives decided to defend the constitutionality of the statute.  New York Law Journal reports that on Monday, lawyers for the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives filed a memorandum of law (full text) in one of the cases in which the House is defending DOMA.  The case is Windsor v. United States, (SD NY), in which the surviving spouse of a same-sex marriage performed in Canada is seeking to have her marriage recognized for federal estate tax purposes. The memo argues that the court should apply merely rational basis review in assessing the challenge to DOMA, and that the courts should leave any redefinition of marriage to the democratic process. (See prior related posting.) [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]