Obama drops defense of antigay marriage law
The Obama administration has announced that it will no longer defend
the Defense of Marriage Act, a nearly 15-year-old law that defines
marriages as heterosexual unions.
In a letter to Congress,
Attorney General Eric Holder said President Obama has determined that
the law, widely known as DOMA, is unconstitutional when applied to
same-sex couples married legally under state law.
Holder, writing
to House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), said the decision came as he
and the president reviewed the administration's role in current court
challenges from legally married same-sex couples in New York and
Connecticut.
