Yesterday, a federal bankruptcy held that the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act cannot constitutionally be applied to a gay couple in a bankruptcy proceeding. As the court explained:
[The government’s only basis for supporting DOMA comes down to an apparent belief that the moral views of the majority may properly be enacted as the law of the land in regard to state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in disregard of the personal status and living conditions of a significant segment of our pluralistic society. Such a view is not consistent with the evidence or the law as embodied in the Fifth Amendment with respect to the thoughts expressed in this decision. The court has no doubt about its conclusion: the Debtors have made their case persuasively that DOMA deprives them of the equal protection of the law to which they are entitled.
In an unusual move, 20 of the court’s 24 judges signed the opinion, although the typical practice is for just one judge to handle bankruptcy trials — a move that was likely made to show overwhelming support for the court’s decision.