Federal appeals court strikes down DOMA - this is a big deal

Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly:

Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act -- the federal definition of "marriage" and "spouse" is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court in Boston ruled today. The decision by a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. United States, is the first instance of a federal appellate court striking down any portion of the 1996 law.

Judge Michael Boudin, appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush, wrote for the court:

[M]any Americans believe that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, and most Americans live in states where that is the law today. One virtue of federalism is that it permits this diversity of governance based on local choice, but this applies as well to the states that have chosen to legalize same-sex marriage. Under current Supreme Court authority, Congress' denial of federal benefits to same-sex couples lawfully married in Massachusetts has not been adequately supported by any permissible federal interest.

It's interesting how when the religious right either appeals to bigots, or lies to voters, they win on this issue. But when you explain the issue to Americans honestly, they side with us in the polls, an increasingly number of legislatures are now siding with us, and when we go to court - and actually discuss the constitutionality of this issue with educated experts - they side with us.

So basically, the religious right wins when people are bigots or uneducated. Which has been our point all along. And was the point of the NYT way back in the early 90s when they correctly defined the religious right as uneducated. That is "the" definition of the GOP base, and particularly the religious right. A lack of education breeds bigotry and intolerance.