President Obama says the federal government will no longer defend the ban on gay marriages.

Obama signs the Reducing Over Classification Bill in Washington

President Obama says the federal government will no longer defend the ban on gay marriages. The Obama Administration today called for heightened scrutiny in the federal lawsuits challenging the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA), which defines marriage for federal purposes as only between a man and woman, and ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) not to defend the discriminatory law.

In response to the announcement, Attorney General Eric HolderEric Holder stated, "The president has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny.” The key provision in the law "fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the president has instructed the (Justice Department) not to defend the statute. I fully concur with the president's determination,” Holder added.

In the past, Obama has voiced his personal opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, but until now the President had never stated an opinion regarding its constitutionality. The administration had a March 11 deadline to respond to two lawsuits against the measure in New York - Pedersen v. OPM and Windsor v. United States, challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for federal purposes as only between a man and a woman.

The Attorney General sent a letter today to Congressional leadership to inform them of the Department’s course of action in two lawsuits. In the letter, Holder states,

“After careful consideration, including review of a recommendation from me, the President of the United States has made the determination that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), 1 U.S.C. § 7, i as applied to same-sex couples who are legally married under state law, violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment…

While the Department has previously defended DOMA against legal challenges involving legally married same-sex couples, recent lawsuits that challenge the constitutionality of DOMA Section 3 have caused the President and the Department to conduct a new examination of the defense of this provision… the President and I have concluded that classifications based on sexual orientation warrant heightened scrutiny and that, as applied to same-sex couples legally married under state law, Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional.

Pursuant to the President’s instructions, and upon further notification to Congress, I will instruct Department attorneys to advise courts in other pending DOMA litigation of the President's and my conclusions that a heightened standard should apply, that Section 3 is unconstitutional under that standard and that the Department will cease defense of Section 3.”

Following the announcement by the Obama administration, Evan Wolfson, President and Founder of Freedom to Marry, released a statement applauding the decision. "The Administration today acknowledges that there is no legitimate reason for this discrimination and therefore it cannot be defended under the Constitution. This a momentous step forward toward Freedom to Marry's goal of ending federal marriage discrimination and fully protecting all loving and committed couples.