Nordicus is getting a little fed up with judges attacking the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on 14th Amendment grounds. Today's New York Times reports two new lawsuits generated by folks in states that allow same-sex "marriage".
According to these lawsuits, the fact that federal law does not recognize the "marriage" is offensive to the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment, because state law recognizes it.
This is completely upside down. The 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause is an increase of federal power over the states, not of states over the federal government. Indeed, the after the citizenship clause, the next conditions all begin with "No state shall...". And the Amendment closes with "The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."
And Congress has passed appropriate legislation: The Defense of Marriage Act!
So, the 14th Amendment doesn't give federal courts the power to nullify federal law according to states' preferences, but the opposite!
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