The Defense of Marriage Act and the Establishment Clause

Abstract

This paper argues that the Defense of Marriage Act violates the Establishment Clause. Since the Supreme Court has struggled with both the creation and application of operative standards or analyses with which to evaluate claims under the Establishment Clause, this paper will first examine the three formulations of these tests and attempt to provide some coherence on the meaning and applicability of each. Next, this paper will examine DOMA under each of the three tests, concluding that the law violates the Establishment Clause under any test which a court might apply.