Obama Bows Out on the Defense of Marriage Act

National Review  "The Holder letter concludes: “Our attorneys will notify the courts of our interest in providing Congress a full and fair opportunity to participate in the litigation in these cases.” It would have been fuller and fairer for President Obama and the Justice Department to have done that from the beginning when the DOMA suits were filed in Massachusetts. The silver lining is that the way has now been cleared for a real adversarial process. The law enacted by Congress and the views of the American people finally will have a champion in court."

Volokh Conspiracy on DOMA   "So I take the Obama Administration to task not for asserting executive review here, which is at least arguably proper, but for trying to split the baby in half, and declaring that it won’t defend an unconstitutional law, but will enforce it. And not just any unconstitutional law, but one regarding which the Administration claims there are no “reasonable” supporting arguments."

More from Volokh Conspiracy:  "I also agree that there is a big difference between declining to enforce a law and declining to defend it. ... First, my sense is that it is not clear that others can step in to defend DOMA, and if so, how that would work. ...And second, the decision not to defend DOMA is likely to trigger a tit-for-tat that will have significant repercussions for the role of the Executive branch in defending legislation in the future."