House Republican leaders Thursday withdrew their legal team from defending the Defense of Marriage Act and similar statutes from a Massachusetts case because of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the federal law that banned gay marriages, according to The Washington Post.
The House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group said in a court filing that it is withdrawing from McLaughlin v. Panetta, a case in which gay members of the military challenged the constitutionality of the law.
The document also says that while another statute in the case, Title 38, remains unresolved, the “House has determined, in light of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Windsor, that it no longer will defend that statute. Accordingly, the House now seeks leave to withdraw as a party defendant,” according to the Post.
