Sadly, Tony Perkins Invents Notion That ‘Liberals In Congress Are Moving Forward To Repeal’ DOMA

Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins has just sent out a frantic fundraising email alerting his members that “liberals in Congress are moving forward right now to repeal” DOMA and slamming Joseph Tauro, the Nixon-appointed judge who overturned DOMA last week:

Ever since, DOMA has been under attack by the powerful homosexual lobby, in lockstep with their liberal allies on Capitol Hill and in the mainstream media. Now they’re running full speed ahead to reach their goal.

The pace began picking up last year when President Obama signed a federal “hate crimes” law. Then came his renewed assault on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and most recently his nomination of the pro-homosexual activist Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. And just last week an activist federal judge in Massachusetts declared unconstitutional the federal definition of “marriage”–the union of one man and one woman. He added that “it is only irrational prejudice that motivates the [traditional definition of marriage].”

The Obama Justice Department has not done its duty to defend DOMA aggressively. In fact, it appears that while Solicitor General at Justice, Elena Kagan undermined DOMA in various cases and made deliberately weak legal defenses. Imagine what she’d do with a lifetime appointment to the highest court!

It’s amusing to see how completely detached from reality Perkins is (or chooses to be), particularly since the gay community has condemned the Obama Justice Department for using Bush-era language to defend DOMA and criticized the administration for giving mere lip service to repeal.

The email suggests that conservatives will attack the administration whether it takes up unpopular liberal causes or not, and also says something interesting about the Right’s knee-jerk perception of judges that don’t agree with them as “liberal” or “activist.” For instance, Joshua Green points out that many of the recent so-called ‘gay activist’ judges were, like Joseph Tauro, appointed by conservatives:

Last year, the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a gay-marriage ban on the grounds that it violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the state constitution. The unanimous decision was written by Justice Mark Cady, a conservative placed on the court by the former Republican governor Terry Branstad…. The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling was written by Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, named to the court by one Republican governor (William Weld) and elevated to chief justice by another (Paul Cellucci).

This summer’s other major ruling on gay marriage, along with Tauro’s, will come from the federal district court in California, where Chief Judge Vaughn Walker will decide whether to overturn the state’s Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage. The betting is that he will, which would be notable not only because of his political lineage but because Walker’s nomination by Ronald Reagan was thwarted by Democrats — led by the current House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi — who believed he was prejudiced against homosexuals. They were mistaken. Reappointed by George H.W. Bush and this time confirmed, Walker demonstrated no prejudice.

I don’t want to overstate the trend, but there is probably a difference between conservative judges — who tend to be hyper-educated lawyers and think like intellectuals — and the sort of people who actually care about hating on gays. Perkins’ email represents the latter group well.