Cert. Petition Filed In Defense of Marriage Act Challenge

A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed Friday in Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives v. Gill. In the case, decided by the 1st Circuit under the title Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the appeals court held unconstitutional Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act that denies federal benefits to same-sex couples (and surviving same-sex spouses) lawfully married in Massachusetts and other states. (See prior posting.)  The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group that filed the cert. petition was intervenor-appellant in the court of appeals below.  SCOTUS Blog reports on the filing of the cert. petition. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]