BREAKING: DOJ Won't Defend Laws That Block Benefits For Gay Military Couples

Talking Points Memo has a major scoop from the DOJ.

The Obama Justice Department has concluded that legislation banning same-sex couples from receiving military and veterans benefits violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and will no longer defend the statute in court, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders on Friday.

“The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans,” Holder wrote. “Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.”

Obviously this latest move will cause an immediate firestorm of condemnation and wailing from the enemies of civil equality. HURRAY!

SPLC Sues To Overturn DOMA

The Southern Poverty Law Center is suing the federal government on behalf of a disabled lesbian veteran and her partner.

Tracey Cooper-Harris served her country for 12 years in the U.S. Army. She received more than two dozen medals and commendations. She was honorably discharged in 2003. In 2010, Cooper-Harris was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a disabling disease that attacks the brain and central nervous system. The Department of Veterans Affairs denied Cooper-Harris’ request for benefits for her partner, even though their same-sex marriage was recognized by California. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of Cooper-Harris and her partner, charging that the Department of Veterans Affairs discriminated against them by denying these benefits but granting them to spouses in heterosexual marriages. It also charges the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional because it bans federal agencies from recognizing such same-sex marriages, denying these couples benefits available to couples in heterosexual marriages

Today's Lie From NOM

NOM is claiming that the Navy ordered chaplains to perform same-sex marriages.

Did you see this day coming? Who would have thought we needed a federal statute to protect military chaplains—and other servicemen and women—who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman? But just months after the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, there is a full-on battle for marriage raging within our nation's armed forces. Last April, the Navy issued new "sensitivity training" guidelines that required Navy chaplains to perform same-sex marriages.

That never happened, of course, but as we've seen countless times, NOM has no problem issuing easily disproved lies when it comes to fundraising. NOM Exposed points out that the Navy actually said that chaplains could choose to perform any ceremony. Don't expect a retraction.