Obama Comes Out of the Closet on Marriage

In 2009, Barack Obama took an oath--witnessed in person by more than two million people--to defend the Constitution. Today, he shrugged off that vow in plain sight of the country he swore to lead. In a shocking turn of events, the President has unilaterally decided that America 's marriage law is unconstitutional and ordered his administration to stop defending at all costs. In an announcement made earlier this afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that his department will abdicate its responsibility to fight for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by abandoning it in the courts. According to the Justice Department's own statement, "After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation... the Department has declined to defend a statute in cases, like this one, where the President has concluded that the statute is unconstitutional... "

Holder, who says he "fully concur[s] with the President's determination," has given the order for DOJ attorneys to cease and desist. " The Department has a longstanding practice of defending the constitutionality of duly-enacted statutes," Holder insists, "if reasonable arguments can be made in their defense." The Department does not, however, consider the argument for man-woman marriage--supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans--"to be a 'reasonable' one."

Never in the history of this great nation has a President so openly defied his duty to uphold and defend the law of the United States . Now, this White House is declaring war--not only on marriage--but on Congress, whose authority this President now rejects. If this congressional leadership does not intervene with the force this attack demands, then they will become complicit in behavior that is more befitting of a Middle East regime. To our friends who want nothing more than to leave these issues behind, this is what a social truce would look like. Republicans need to see this challenge for what it is: the White House, throwing down the gauntlet on marriage and declaring them irrelevant. That same piece of yellowed parchment that empowers this President is the one that demands, "He shall take care that the laws be faithfully enforced." And where he fails, Congress must not.