A mini-symposium on
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE FUTURE OF DOMA:
LAW, POLITICS, FEDERALISM, & FAMILIES
Featuring a lecture on "One State's Challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act"
by Maura Healey, Chief, Civil Rights Division, Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
followed by a panel of legal and academic experts:
Thomas M. Fisher, Solicitor General, State of Indiana
Dawn Johnsen, Walter W. Foskett Professor, IU Maurer School of Law,
and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
Brian Powell, Rudy Professor of Sociology, IU College of Arts & Sciences
and co-author of Counted Out: Same-sex Relations and Americans' Definitions of the Family
Deborah Widiss, Associate Professor, IU Maurer School of Law
Moderated by Steve Sanders, University of Michigan Law School
3 p.m. Thursday, April 7, Maurer School of Law, IU Bloomington. Free and open to the public.
Massachusetts (the first state to legalize same-sex marriage) filed suit against the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2009. A companion suit was filed by same-sex couples. Last year, a federal judge ruled that DOMA violates the Constitution's 10th Amendment and equal protection guarantee. On Feb. 23, the Obama Justice Department announced it agreed that DOMA was unconstitutional and that it would cease defending several lawsuits against the act. Ms. Healy and our panelists will discuss these dramatic legal and political developments and the larger contexts in which they arise, including the diverse views of the states on federalism and same-sex marriage, and Americans' changing perceptions of gay/lesbian families.
Sponsored by the Maurer School of Law and its LGBT Alumni Advisory Board, the College of Arts & Sciences, the IU Office of Affirmative Action, the IU GLBT Alumni Association, the Center on Law, Society & Culture, and OUTlaw.
For more information, contact Steve Sanders (stevesan@umich.edu).
