Inaccurate Coverage of Obama and the Massachusetts DOMA Ruling

After celebrating the ruling out of Massachusetts last night, it’s important to look down the road.  Specifically, what will happened when this is appealed.  Presumably, the Administration will once again defend DOMA, as both Mary Bonauto, who argued for GLAD, and others expect.

The Associated Press covered the story and gave a peculiar (read:inaccurate) description (emphasis added):

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said the law, the Defense of Marriage Act, interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits. He ruled Thursday in favor of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to DOMA, which the administration of President Barack Obama has argued for repealing.

Not sure you’d exactly call last June’s DOMA brief arguing for repeal.  In fact, while Obama called for the repeal of DOMA during the campaign, the White House is now not answering whether or not he finds DOMA to be constitutional and the Justice Department has defended it.  As Joe Sudbay and others have pointed out, the decision to defend DOMA again will create a lot of anger as we approach the 2012 election.