Somewhat obscured in the aftermath of the Senate vote-down of the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment, the House last week voted thumbs up for a bill that seeks to strip federal courts of jurisdiction to hear challenges to parts of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) pertaining to whether a state must recognize same-sex unions legalized elsewhere.
I find it doubtful that federal courts would find constitutional a bill limiting their jurisdiction, presuming the Senate went along with this measure. But even so, despite the anti-gay animus behind this attempt, letting state legislatures and courts decide whether to recognize marriages performed elsewhere has long been the standard (a Supreme Court ruling was necessary to specifically bar miscegenation as a reason states could refuse to recognize marriages).
So I'm not up in arms over this new bill. In fact, if a federal court were to rule that state x must recognize a Massachusetts same-sex marriage, it would swiftly reinvigorate the push for the Federal Marriage Amendment (with far more devastating results), as well as for even more state constitutional amendments barring recognition of our marriages.
Maybe I'm wrong not to be upset by this court-jurisdiction bill;
time will tell.