Thaindian News

Washington, Mar 5(ANI): U.S. House Speaker John A. Boehner has announced plans to initiate a legal defense of the 1996 law that bars the federal government from giving legal rights or federal benefits to gay couples.

Boehner seized on the opportunity to take up a social issue after the Obama administration announced last week that the Justice Department would no longer defend the law.

Attorney General Eric Holder had said in a letter to the Congress that the administration had determined that the law, known as the Defense of Marriage Act, discriminated against gays and therefore could no longer be accepted as reasonable.

“The constitutionality of this law should be determined by the courts - not by the president unilaterally - and this action by the House will ensure the matter is addressed in a manner consistent with our Constitution,” the New York Daily News quoted Boehner, as saying.

The Defense of Marriage Act was passed by a Republican majority in Congress, and signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. It was largely designed to prevent same-sex marriages authorized in one state from being legally recognized nationwide, as is done routinely with heterosexual marriages. (ANI)