When President Obama told the Justice Department in February 2011 to stop defending a key federal law that defines marriage as between r man and a woman, it was widely assumed the department would take a neutral position and sit on the sidelines. But with little fanfare since that announcement, the Justice Department has actually started filing legal briefs arguing that the law in question — the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) — should be overturned because, the department says, it is unconstitutional.