Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Cardozo Law Review de novo
Publication Date
2012
Abstract
The time has come.
The time has come.
The time is now.
Just go.
Go.
GO!
I don’t care how.
You can go by foot.
You can go by cow.
Marvin K. Mooney, will you please go now!
These are the opening lines of Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!, a Dr. Seuss book that my three sons and I have read literally hundreds of times. It has all the usual appeal of a Dr. Seuss book -- euphonious rhymes, made-up words and objects, fantastical creatures. But it has something else, too. An air of mystery. The entire book revolves around trying to get rid of Marvin K. Mooney, a typical Dr. Seuss character who is some cross between a bear and a small child. The text alternates between increasingly emphatic requests to leave and suggestions for the best ways to exit. . . .
Missing from the story, though, is even a vague hint as to what Marvin K. Mooney might have done to warrant exile, or where he might be headed. That he needs to leave is apparently beyond dispute. The same could be said for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). It has so obviously outlived any purpose it might have once had that it just needs to go. Now.
This essay briefly explore the origins of DOMA; its messy and often devastating impact in a world in which some states have legalized same-sex marriage.
Recommended Citation
Joanna L. Grossman,
Defense of Marriage Act, Will You Please Go Now! Cardozo L. Rev. de novo 155
(2012)
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/334