Yes, this announcement was made some years ago, when Obama was still pretending to oppose gay marriage.
I am peripherally involved in a current lawsuit challenging the DOMA: it turns out Congress has its own legal staff (the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, with the unpleasant acronym BLAG) which had to petition the judge for permission to provide a defense of the DOMA, because the DOJ lawyers won't.
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There actually is a respectable argument to be made that the President has a duty to refuse to defend in court laws which he believes to be unconstitutional -- it doesn't fit well in the mouths of those who think "constitutional" is a synonym for "good" and "unconstitutional" for "bad," but it's respectable.
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Date: 2012-05-15 12:11 am (UTC)I am peripherally involved in a current lawsuit challenging the DOMA: it turns out Congress has its own legal staff (the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, with the unpleasant acronym BLAG) which had to petition the judge for permission to provide a defense of the DOMA, because the DOJ lawyers won't.
*
There actually is a respectable argument to be made that the President has a duty to refuse to defend in court laws which he believes to be unconstitutional -- it doesn't fit well in the mouths of those who think "constitutional" is a synonym for "good" and "unconstitutional" for "bad," but it's respectable.