U.S. District Court Asked to Declare Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional

WASHINGTON, DC – A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court seeks to declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional, according to an Alliance for Marriage spokesperson.

Known as Smelt v. Orange County, the suit asks the court to declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California law to violate Due Process, Equal Protection, the Right to Privacy, and Full Faith and Credit under the U.S. Constitution.

The federal lawsuit was filed September 1 in California. News of the lawsuit was “quietly buried on the Metro page of The Los Angeles Times,” the spokesperson said, and has received scant media coverage from any source – despite its being filed in an election year and in a month when the U.S. House voted on the Federal Marriage Amendment. 

"This is just the beginning," said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage (AFM).  "Immediately following the election, America will be hit by a wave of lawsuits intended to strike down marriage in different states across the country.  What is shocking – given the fact that we are just days away from the election – is that it's happening already.

"The constitutional problem created by almost a decade of activist lawsuits to destroy our marriage laws demands a constitutional fix,” Daniels continued. “Our Federal Marriage Amendment will protect marriage while leaving all issues of benefits to the democratic process in the states.  AFM believes the centrist approach embodied in our amendment offers hope of a democratic solution to the debate that will be forced on America as a result of activist judges."

The Alliance for Marriage is a multicultural coalition whose Board of Advisors includes Rev. Walter Fauntroy (the D.C. Coordinator of the March on Washington for Martin Luther King Jr.), as well as other civil rights and religious leaders, and national legal experts.