Shock shock! House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is blaming Republicans for the Defense of Marriage Act.
“Republicans knew, and they know right now, that DOMA is not constitutional,” Pelosi told a gaggle of reporters on Wednesday, directly after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the legislation.
An ironic statement from the Minority Leader considering DOMA was signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1996.
The SCOTUS will rule on whether Section 3 of DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment, because the federal marriage law doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages legalized by some states.
During her press conference, Pelosi specifically attacked Republicans in the House for being “irresponsible” and giving money to efforts to uphold the law.
House Speaker John Boehner defended the funding earlier this week at the Capitol.
“Let’s not confuse the issue of DOMA and the [Obama] administration’s decision that it was unconstitutional,” he argued. “It’s not their role to decide what’s constitutional.”
After sitting in on the Supreme Court’s arguments on Wednesday, Pelosi told reporters she was “very optimistic that DOMA will be struck down,” although a decision may not be reached until June.
The California Congresswoman said a question repeated throughout the hearing was why people are tripping all over each other to come out for marriage equality. The 73-year-old House Minority Leader chalked it up to a “generational change.”
“That’s been translated into our popular culture, whether it’s TV or movies or whatever, and so we’re at a different place,” Pelosi said. “And so it’s a generational change as well. You look at these statistics and you’ll see a generation gap in terms of approval of marriage equality.”
She added, “That ignorance has faded.”
