Conservative Supreme Court justices said they were troubled by the Obama administration tiptoeing around the federal Defense of Marriage Act during oral arguments Wednesday morning at the high court.
According to Reuters, Justice Anthony Kennedy said he found the Justice Department's actions on the law to be "very troubling."
In February 2011, the Obama administration said that it would no longer defend the law, because it thought it was unconstitutional. But it is still enforcing the law.
Justice Antonin Scalia, another conservative justice, called it a "new world" in which an Attorney General can determine a law to be unconstitutional, yet still enforce it.
And according to Reuters, Chief Justice John Roberts called the administration's actions "unprecedented." For the administration to agree with a lower court ruling that found DOMA unconstitutional, but still want the Supreme Court to render a decision is something that has "never been done before," Roberts said.
The Wall Street Journal adds that Roberts "repeatedly expressed irritation" at the Obama administration's actions on DOMA, saying that the government should have the "courage" to enforce the law based on its constitutionality rather than pawning that decision off on the Supreme Court.
As far as the actual decision, SCOTUSblog reported that it's unclear if even a majority justices believe that the Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to decide the case.
Update: J Kennedy asks two questions doubting #doma validity but nothing decisive and Chief Justice and Kagan have yet to speak.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) March 27, 2013
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