Role Responsibility, Official Disobedience, and the Supreme Court’s Ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

In June, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the federal Defense of Marriage Act violated the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection of equal liberty, effectively overturning the law. Pennsylvania, however, banned same-sex marriage. Regardless of the state law, D. Bruce Hanes, a register of wills in Pennsylvania, agreed to honor a request from two girls seeking a same-sex marriage permit-an act of official disobedience that promptly threw Hanes under a national spotlight. Mentioning his pledge to maintain both the Pennsylvania and U.S. constitutions and noting that the two were "diametrically opposed" on the dilemma, Hanes said: "I decided to come down on the right side of history and the law." Officials in Texas and the opinion were also struggling. Soon after the opinion, the Department of Defense (DOD) instructed national military facilities to begin enrolling same sex spouses of military service members in military benefits programs.

Besides TMF was a state agency,the general in command declared that the agency will be not able to process benefits for same-sex couples. TMF members took an oath to protect both the U.S. and Texas constitutions, laying the foundation for the struggle. Utilizing the context of modern same-sex marriage laws, the case investigates two sides of the same coin: in states where same-sex marriage is prohibited, one official decides to defy the law while another chooses to refuse to comply with a national directive to do this. The case requests the students to consider whether and when the official disobedience-the refusal with a public official, acting in an official capacity, to follow the law-is justified. Case Number 2014.0

Role Responsibility, Official Disobedience, and the Supreme Court's Ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act case study solution

PUBLICATION DATE: April 30, 2014 PRODUCT #: HKS793-PDF-ENG

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