President Obama supports expected Senate, House bills seeking repeal of Defense of Marriage Act

Members of Congress said Thursday they will seek to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, and President Obama's press secretary said the president supports the effort.

The news came a day after Obama announced that his administration would no longer defend in court the constitutionality of the 15-year-old federal law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told USA Today he will reintroduce a bill to overturn DOMA when Congress reconvenes next week.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announced she, too, would introduce a bill to seek the law's repeal, the San Francisco Chroniclereported. Feinstein was one of only 14 senators to vote against DOMA when Congress passed the act in 1996.

Nadler and Feinstein have the president's support.

His press secretary, Jay Carney, said Obama supports repeal.

"The President has long believed that DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, is an unnecessary and unfair law," Carney said during a White House briefing on Thursday. "He supports the repeal of the law."

On the other side, conservatives vowed to step up their efforts to defend traditional marriage, noting that 31 states have constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

The president of the National Organization for Marriage said his and other groups hope that House Republicans will defend the law in court where Obama's Justice Department now will refuse.

"We've been in a lot of discussions with leadership with members of Congress and look, they're looking at the case, they're making decisions as we speak," Brown told ABC News. "And I expect them to step in and defend the law."

The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin, a journalist who has covered the Supreme Court for years, wrote that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that the Obama Administration would no longer defend the constitutionality of DOMA could make a strong impressionon Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's swing vote.

Both Toobin and UCLA law professor Adam Winkler, who wrote for the Huffington Post, said the decision not to defend DOMA is rare. Winkler even said it should be condemned, calling it a terrible precedent and a mistake.

"Don't be surprised," Winkler wrote, "if a President Palin points to Obama's decision when announcing her refusal to enforce and defend the landmark healthcare reform law because, in her view, the individual mandate is unconstitutional."