DOMA and Obama

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the president has decided that the Defense of Marriage Act or "DOMA" as it is known cannot be defended as constitutional. Accordingly, the federal government will no longer attempt to defend the law in court. To put it mildly, WHAT THE HELL IS OBAMA DOING??

Under the American system of government, the determination as to whether or not a law is constitutional is not made by the president. Sure, the president could veto a bill passed by congress on the ground that he believes it to be unconstitutional. Once the bill becomes law, however, the president has a sworn duty to try to uphold the validity of that law. That duty does not disappear even if the president does not like the law and even if the president thinks the law is unconstitutional. The determination of constitutionality is made by the Supreme Court.

What would happen were the next president to say that he considered obamacare to be unconstitutional so that it would no longer be defended. Maybe the next president could decide that the Supreme Court erred in ruling that there is a constitutional right to abortion, so that law from prior to Roe v. Wade on the subject of abortion would be enforced. Maybe the president could decide that the amendment allowing 18 year olds to vote was actually unconstitutional so that he could bar those folks from voting.

The point is simple: the president cannot just decide on his own that a validly passed law is no longer constitutional. He cannot decide not to enforce the laws that he swore to uphold. Obama's actions are a disgrace.

Of course, there is the second question about DOMA: with so much going on in Washington and around the world, why is Obama wasting time now on this issue? Is it more important for gays in Nebraska to say that they are "married" rather than that they have a "civil union", or could the soaring price of oil and the unrest in the Libya and the rest of the region possibly be more important? Is this time spent on DOMA part of Obama's being focused like a laser on jobs?

Just once, I would like the president to actually do the job he is supposed to be doing, or even the job he claims to be doing. If he spends the next two years doing nothing but running for re-election, we are all in deep trouble.