Brody's Notes... Reactions To U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro's Ruling: Federal Ban On Gay Marriage Is Unconstitutional

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) July 9 | Yesterday in a decision handed down in Federal Court in Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled in favor of Gay couples' rights in two separate challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, a 1996 law that the Obama administration has argued for repealing.

Judge Tauro ruled the act violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

"Congress undertook this classification for the one purpose that lies entirely outside of legislative bounds, to disadvantage a group of which it disapproves. And such a classification the Constitution clearly will not permit," Tauro wrote.

Reaction varied from celebratory to a call by Christian activists to pass a ban on Gay Marriage by passage of an amendment to the Constituiton of the United States.

From MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show:

From CBN News: