A Stitch in Haste

Now that it matters not one whiff, Bob Barr is repudiating the federal Defense of Marriage Act (which he authored):

DOMA was indeed designed to thwart the then-nascent move in a few state courts and legislatures to afford partial or full recognition to same-sex couples. The Hawaii court case Baehr vs. Lewin, still active while DOMA was being considered by Congress in mid-1996, provided the immediate impetus.

The Hawaii court was clearly leaning toward legalizing same-sex marriages. So the first part of DOMA was crafted to prevent the U.S. Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause — which normally would require State B to recognize any lawful marriage performed in State A — from being used to extend one state’s recognition of same-sex marriage to other states whose citizens chose not to recognize such a union.

Read that again: Barr knowingly authored a statute — a statute — for the express purpose of negating one of the most important provisions of the Constitution — the Constitution.

That (most un-libertarian) error he doesn’t apologize for. He only apologizes for the political error of miscalculating the impact on states that might in fact want to recognize same-sex marriage; that DOMA — his words — “is not working out as planned.” The pesky fact that (part of) his statute is almost universally thought to be unconstitutional is utterly lost on him.

He’s still an ass. Just like the Big-L Libertarians who nominated him.

Meanwhile, here’s a news flash: DOMA is in fact working exactly “as planned.” It is hurting gays. Cruelly, viciously and in very un-American ways. Exactly as Barr intended it to.

Gays (and libertarians) should not be quick to forgive Barr for his sins.

(Via Hit & Run. More thoughts at Popehat.)

Previously:
–Obligatory Barr-DOMA Post
–Barr’s Half-Hearted, Half-Truthful DOMA “Repudiation”
–Bob Barr on Lawrence v. Texas, 2003