Anti-Gay Groups Vow DOMA Defense

Anti-gay legal groups from the Alliance Defense Fund to the Heritage Foundation are saying that the president's decision yesterday clears the way for them to mount a "truly rigorous" defense of DOMA.

Chuck Donovan, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, says the government's decision to abandon the federal law is outrageous because it is now understood that the administration's defense of DOMA in court has only been a pretense. "The silver lining, though, is that now, we're going to get away from this farce of a representation we've had out of the Obama Justice Department," Donovan suggests. That means "we'll have a clear attempt...by others in Congress to interject the congressional view and defend marriage." The Department of Justice has already told one federal court that DOMA is unconstitutional, while maintaining in another case that the government could make a defense, even though the agency believes the law is unconstitutional. "It's embarrassing for the administration to have it play out this way," the research fellow decides. "It looks very political. But actually, there's a chance that DOMA will now get a much better defense."

An ADF attorney says, "The Department of Justice has a constitutional duty to defend the laws duly enacted by Congress. And the refusal of the attorney general to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act just because they don't like it politically is really inexcusable."