SCOTUS and gay marriage #5: DOMA and the military

Here's the deal clincher on DOMA that I had not considered before.  Rachel Maddow made it a centerpiece of her coverage of the SCOTUS hearing last night.

For civilian same-sex, legally married couples, there are over 1000 benefits that they do not get that opposite-sex married couples do get, including tax benefits, next-of-kin rights, etc.

But for military same-sex couples -- which are now quite permissible since the end of DADT -- it is multiple times worse.   BECAUSE, if you are active duty military, the federal government is in charge of your whole life.

It can makes a difference whether your children are eligible to go to schools for military families on foreign assignments, whether your spouse can get medical care or shop in the commissary, whether he/she would be notified in the usual way if you are killed in battle.

At this point, scores of military brass themselves signed an amicus brief asking the court to overturn DOMA -- because it is a bureaucratic nightmare, in addition to the humanitarian side of it, to try to administer different rights and benefits for their dependents, based on the sex of the spouse.

That, alone, should make the case for overturning DOMA.

And we heard it, again on Rachel Maddow's show, fr0m Nicole Wallace, who was communications chief for George W. Bush and senior advisor to the McCain-Palin campaign.  She is very much in favor of overturning DOMA and joined other important Republicans in an amicus brief.   She and Rachel agreed that, if SCOTUS does not overturn DOMA, it is possible that Congress will itself vote to repeal it.  

It seems that anti-gay positions are an embarrassment now to Republicans, and they would like to take the issue off the table.   They used to be in the majority in opposing gay rights;  now they are in a minority -- and it's becoming a bit embarrassing for them.

Ralph