Fifth Amendment Vs Doma Research Paper

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: Per KENNEDY. In a 5-4 opinion the court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Justice Kennedy stated “DOMA seeks to injure the very class New York seeks to protect. DOMA violates basic due process and equal protection principles applicable to the Federal Government. The Constitution’s guarantee of equality must at the very least mean that a bare congressional desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot justify disparate treatment of that group.” Kennedy goes on to state that “DOMA’s principal purpose is to impose inequality” and though Congress has great authority to design laws to fit its own conception of sound policy, it “cannot deny the liberty

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