Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG)

WASHINGTON — After spending more than $3 million defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Republican leadership in the U.S. House said Thursday they are withdrawing their legal defense of the law that prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Minority Leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said Wednesday that Republicans who voted to spend millions in taxpayer dollars defending the federal ban on same-sex marriage are “irresponsible,” and that she’s “very optimistic” the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down the Defense of Marriage Act.

More than 75 prominent Republican leaders have signed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the freedom for gay and lesbian couples, The New York Times reported late Monday.

The Obama administration on Friday filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing why it considers the federal Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional.

The Center for American Progress looks at the cost of defending the Defense of Marriage Act, and how $3 million could have been better spent.

Attorneys who submitted anti-gay briefs to the Supreme Court in favor of California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act are continuing the mischaracterization of a 2002 study on child development to suggest same-sex parents are less fit than opposite-sex parents, according to the non-profit that produced the study.

The U.S. Supreme Court does not have the authority to rule on the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, argued a Harvard professor in a brief filed Thursday with the high court.

Republican members of the U.S. House leadership on Tuesday told the U.S. Supreme Court it should uphold the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as constitutional, arguing that gays and lesbians are a powerful interest group, and do not warrant “judicial intervention.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives’ continuing effort to defend the federal “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) will soon reach $3 million. Late Monday, House Democrats learned that Republican leadership had again privately raised the spending cap with attorney Paul Clement and the Washington-based law firm Bancroft LLC to defend DOMA in the U.S. […]

As one of its first acts of the 113th Congress, the U.S. House on Thursday approved a set of governing rules that includes language authorizing the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend the Defense of Marriage Act against litigation in court.