House Republicans have withdrawn their defense from all cases
challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
At the direction of GOP House leadership, the Bipartisan Legal
Advisory Group (BLAG) stepped in to defend DOMA in numerous legal
challenges after the Justice Department announced it would no longer
do so.
Following a June ruling from the Supreme Court striking down
section 3 of DOMA, a key provision which prohibited federal agencies
from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples, BLAG
began withdrawing from the remaining cases.
According to Equality
On Trial, BLAG this week withdrew from three remaining
challenges.
In one such case, Bishop v. United States (formerly Bishop
v. Oklahoma), plaintiffs are making broad constitutional
arguments challenging Section 2 of DOMA, which allows states to
ignore the legal out-of-state marriages of gay couples, and
Oklahoma's marriage ban.
Without Section 2 of DOMA, states that limit marriage to
heterosexual couples would likely have to recognize the marriages of
gay couples celebrated in one of the 13 states plus the District of
Columbia where such unions are legal.
(Related: House
Republicans end defense of DOMA, similar laws that ban gay marriage.)