U.S. government won’t fight bankruptcy by married gay couples

The Obama administration’s recent position is that the federal law forbidding government recognition of same-sex unions is unconstitutional. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said government lawyers decided this week that letting gay and lesbian couples jointly petition for bankruptcy protection is consistent with that stance. The shift stems from a California couple who got married when it was briefly legal in 2008 before the state’s voters passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. A U.S. bankruptcy trustee initially fought the men on the grounds that the federal Defense of Marriage Act prohibited it. Obama’s stance on DOMA also was cited this week by a federal appeals court in San Francisco that ordered the Pentagon to immediately stop enforcing the 17-year-old law that prohibits gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from serving openly in the armed forces.

[via The AP]