Up until now, the Obama administration has held the position that gay marriage was a question for the states to decide. Though the president supports same-sex marriage, the administration's chief involvement has been declining to prosecute cases related to the Defense of Marriage Act.
"I continue to believe that this is an issue that is going to be worked out at the local level, because historically,
this has not been a federal issue, what's recognized as a marriage," he told ABC News in May.
Yet today the Obama Administration got involved in the legal battle over California's Proposition 8. In a brief, the administration argued that Prop 8 violates the Constitution's equal protection clause in Amendment 14 and urged the Supreme Court justices to subject it to "heightened scrutiny" and declare it unconstitutional. California offers legal domestic partnership status, but the brief says that's not enough to fulfill equal protection. Though the administration specifically is not asking for all bans to be overturned, and instead focusing its attention solely on California, it's hard to see how this wouldn't end in national implications for legalizing gay marriage.
Even the filing of this brief is a victory for gay marriage advocates and for the wedding industry. States with <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/10/pf/gay-marriage/index.htm">marriage equality have seen hundreds of millions
of dollars added to their economies</a>, and a Congressional Budget Office Report said that nationwide same-sex marriage rights would generate a net $1 billion each year for the Federal budget over the next 10 years. As the number of heterosexual couples having weddings is on the decline, this recognition of civil rights could also be a big boon for the industry.
Read more: U.S. Urges Justices to End California Gay Marriage Ban - NYTimes.com.
