Krauthammer On Supreme Court’s DOMA Ruling: ‘Nationalizing Gay Marriage’ Is Now ‘Inevitable’

Nationalized gay marriage is now inevitable. So argued Charles Krauthammer in a Washington Post column assessing the implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act. Citing the equal protection rationale, Krauthammer asserted the ruling will nationalize gay marriage the way Roe v. Wade did abortion.

Krauthammer found it “curious” that the court’s decision contained two rationales. First, that the federal government may not intrude on the matter. And second, equal protection: “In states with same-sex marriage, Washington must give the same federal benefits to gay couples as to straight couples because to do otherwise is to discriminate against the gay couples.”

He made the argument thusly:

Why should equal protection apply only in states that recognize gay marriage? Why doesn’t it apply equally — indeed, even perhaps more forcefully — to gays who want to marry in states that refuse to marry them?

If discriminating (regarding federal benefits) between a gay couple and a straight couple is prohibited in New York where gay marriage is legal, by what logic is discrimination permitted in Texas, where a gay couple is prevented from marrying in the first place?

The ruling will lead to “nationalizing gay marriage, the way Roe nationalized abortion.” Justice Anthony Kennedy knows he has “planted the seed,” Krauthamer posited.

Read the full piece here.

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