Brody's Notes... Attorney General Holder: Justice Department Won't Defend Blocking Military Benefits From Same-Sex Couples

U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder

By Brody Levesque | WASHINGTON -- U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder in a letter written Friday to House Speaker John Boehner, notified the Speaker and congressional leaders that the Justice Department has concluded that current federal statutes banning same-sex couples from receiving military and veterans benefits violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and will no longer defend the statute in court.

“The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans,” Holder wrote. “Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.

The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans,” Holder wrote. “Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.”

The Attorney General notes that the Justice Department will also discontinue defending the provisions in Federal Title 38, which prevents same-sex couples who are legally married from obtaining benefits.

Specific to military and veteran's benefits, the AG wrote that the benefits in question “included medical and dental benefits, basic housing allowances, travel and transportation allowances, family separation benefits, military identification cards, visitation rights in military hospitals, survivor benefits, and the right to be buried together in military cemeteries.”

Holder allows that the congressional leadership will be provided a “full and fair opportunity” to defend the statues- outlined as unconstitutional by the administration- in the currently pending McLaughlin v. Panetta case if they wished to do so.

Copy of Holder's Letter via Talking Points Memo here.