By Melanie Nathan, February 22, 2012.
Boehner V Golinski's
San Francisco – Speaker Boehner had made an attempt to fight the Karen Golinski’s case in her quest to seek health care benefits from the court when her Federal employer had declined to provide them, citing the Defense of Marriage Act as reason for its denial. The speaker lost today when Bush appointee Judge Jeffrey White held DOMA unconstitutional in the case.
Seeking to invoke “HOUSE power,” via the House of Representatives hiring its own lawyers to represent the so called “Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group” (BLAG), Boehner today proved himself to be a frivolous wasteful spender of tax payer money.
Tax payer resources were wasted by Boehner when BLAG tried to defend a case that the Obama administration chose not to defend, as the administration actual presented a brief in Court asserting that Ms. Golinski was in fact entitled to parity for her same-sex spouse under the equal protection clause in the US Constitution.
We assert that Speaker Boehner did not have authority to convene BLAG to speak for Congress in a matter of this nature. The lawyers were hired by BLAG because Boehner was not happy that the Obama administration chose to, in effect, support Ms. Golinski’s quest for benefits.
BLAG under Boehner should be reprimanded and Boehner should resign over the embarrassment and wastefulness. See Story here: http://gayusathemovie.com/2012/02/doma-ruled-unconstitional-again-as-lesbian-karen-golinski-wins-health-care-benefits-case/
If you think Boehner should be embarrassed enough to resign – please hit like on my FB page or here!
UPDATED 2/24/2012 Comment Via Washington Blade by Rep. Nancy Pelosi
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took aim at House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the Republican leadership in a statement, saying, “In rejecting the arguments of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, the court’s ruling also reaffirmed a core belief of the majority of House Democrats: that the House is not united in this case; that the BLAG lawyers do not speak for Congress; and that BLAG’s intervention remains a waste of taxpayer resources.”
She continued: “The court made it clear that there is no legitimate federal interest in denying married gay and lesbian couples the legal security, rights, and responsibilities guaranteed to all married couples under state law.”
A spokesman for Boehner did not immediately respond to a request from Metro Weekly for comment.
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wow… a slight conflict with executive power. Now he thinks he can hire his own private justice department at Congress’ expense? What is going on with these people? OMG!
‘We assert that Speaker Boehner did not have authority to convene BLAG to speak for Congress in a matter of this nature.’ Who is the royal we making this assertion? There are no quotes in article that any of it is from the ruling.
Bear with me, I am a foreigner. How large is a “district”, and how senior a “district judge”? Are you saying that a fairly junior judge would be appointed by the President, and so could be expected to interpret law in a partisan manner?
The US has 94 federal district courts. Most districts cover an entire state, but some of the larger more populous states have two or three. Each district court will have several federal judges, who judge on cases involving federal (that is to say national) law as opposed to the laws of individual states or territories. These judges are all appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate and serve till they die, retire, or are removed from office via impeachment (which I don’t believe has ever happened). Because of their long tenures, we still have many judges who were appointed by Bush, Clinton, and even Bush Sr. (Don’t know if there are any from Reagan or earlier, but it’s certainly possible there are if they were appointed while relatively young.)
There are only two tiers of judges who might be considered above them in rank, Federal circuit judges, who hear appeals on federal cases or involving conflict between state laws and the US Constitution, and the justices of the US Supreme Court. Those upper tier judges are also appointed by the President with approval from the Senate. That’s just the way judges are appointed in the US at the federal level. Many state-level judges are elected, though I believe some may be appointed by their state’s governor, depending on the particular state’s constitution. It could be argued that almost any judge has partisan leanings, but, as White has demonstrated, they’re much more concerned with upholding the law and the US Constitution than with partisan politics. Nonetheless, American media always likes to point out when a judge breaks expectations.
So, no, Jeffrey White isn’t a small cog. He was also involved in the decisions on the closure of the US WikiLeaks site and in allowing a lawsuit against several federal agencies accused of contributing to global climate change.
Anyhow, hope that helps. American politics and government is very confusing to Americans, let alone to foreign nationals, so I can understand the confusion.
Thank you for that. We have “district judges” in England and Wales, but the district is much smaller than 30 million people, and they are the lowest of the civil courts judges. We also have a judicial appointments system keeping it out of the way of the politicians. But then we have ways of interpreting statute which are more elastic than the American. Whatever, I am glad that specifically anti-equality measures can be unconstitutional.
Thanks for your blog post. Boehner is defending the indefensible. I posted your blog on my FB page!
I’d be happy to join your FB page, but where’s the Link? All the best to you!!! Dakotahgeo, M.Div. Pastor/Chaplain
Shoot! I just found it, lolol!!!
Really now, Melanie… did we expect anything different from the Boner-Republican’t group! They always live down to our lowest expectations and then some!