Word coming out today that President Obama has ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. This does not mean they will stop enforcing it (to the degree the federal government has enforced it) but they will no longer argue in favor of the law against lawsuits pending in the 1st and 2nd Federal Districts.
I’ve long felt the law was unconstitutional on the grounds that the federal government has no power to legislate in the area of marriage (Obama has chosen different grounds but that’s his choice) and expect that even if the administration had continued to defend it they would have lost (interestingly this is one case where a conservative judge could more easily find grounds to strike the law than a liberal one) but this will potentially speed up the inevitable Supreme Court case.