And guess who has to decide if they're going to defend DOMA? The Obama administration. NYT:
The former sailor, Carmen Cardona of Norwich, married her partner in Connecticut last year. But when she applied for an increase in her monthly disability compensation because she was newly married, the Department of Veterans Affairs regional office in Hartford rejected her application, citing a federal statute that defines a spouse as “a person of the opposite sex.”
Though the constitutionality of the marriage act has been challenged in federal courts around the country, experts said this would be the first time a plaintiff had tried to use the veterans court of appeals to attack the law.
The case poses a possible conundrum for the Obama administration. In February, President Obama directed the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act against lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.
But cases before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims are generally argued by lawyers from the Department of Veterans Affairs — and some veterans lawyers said it was possible the department might try to chart a different legal course.
