The Status Quo

by Patrick Appel

Talbot reads up on the DOMA case:

Which status quo did the Justice Department lawyers mean? If they weretalking about marriage itself, well, yes, heterosexual marriage was thestatus quo in 1996 [when DOMA passed:]. But if they were talking about marriage law, thestatus quo there was for "the federal government to recognize forfederal purposes, any marriage declared valid according to state law."States ruled. The federal government had to recognize even a marriagethat no other...