BREAKING: DOJ Won't Defend Laws That Block Benefits For Gay Military Couples

Talking Points Memo has a major scoop from the DOJ.

The Obama Justice Department has concluded that legislation banning same-sex couples from receiving military and veterans benefits violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and will no longer defend the statute in court, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders on Friday.

“The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans,” Holder wrote. “Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.”

Obviously this latest move will cause an immediate firestorm of condemnation and wailing from the enemies of civil equality. HURRAY!