Con Law Professors Weigh In on The Constitutionality of DOMA

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines marriage asbetween a man and a woman. Professor Dale Carpenter of University of MinnesotaLaw School asked constitutional law professors whether they believe the DOMA is constitutional. He sent the survey to 1,579 constitutional law teachers that were listedin the 2011-12 directory of the Association of American Law Schools.  485 of those professors responded to hissurvey. 

Professor Carpenter’s results showed that 87% ofconstitutional law professors support marriage for same-sex couples, and 7 outof 10 professors think DOMA is unconstitutional.  A smaller 54% of the professors think that the Constitutionrequires states to recognize same sex marriage.

See Joe Palazzolo, Survey: 7Out of 10 Con Law Profs Think DOMA is Unconstitutional, The Wall Street JournalLaw Blog, Sept. 7, 2012.   

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney atLaw, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to myattention.