Justice Department Vaguely Informs Massachusetts It No Longer Intends To Defend Lawsuit Challenging Constitutional Validity Of Defense Of Marriage Act

Thursday evening, reports WBUR, the United States Department of Justice sent a letter to the First Circuit of Appeals in Boston, informing the court that it will no longer defend a lawsuit in Massachusetts challenging the federal definition of marriage as that only existing between one man and one woman. In the letter, Assistant Attorney General Tony West said the Obama Administration said it will “cease its defense” of the Defense of Marriage Act, but gay rights advocates and the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said that they uncertain what the letter means, since in the same letter West wrote that the Justice Department “will continue to represent the best interests of the United States.” Wednesday, the Justice Department said it would stop defending DOMA, and indicated it would be sending a letter to the court in Boston. Seventeen gay and lesbian residents of Massachusetts and Coakley have already won lawsuits striking down DOMA in a lower court. However Janson Wu, an attorney with Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, says the Justice Department’s letter does not necessarily mean that the government is dropping its appeal. “The extent to which they will no longer defend DOMA’s constitutionality is unclear at the moment,” Wu said.