By failing to defend marriage, the administration may open the door for those passionately opposed to gay marriage to have what they feel they’ve been lacking: a stronger legal voice. In Massachusetts, which is also in the midst of a legal challenge to DOMA, traditional marriage activists, after the initial shock, are finding themselves equally emboldened. Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute says, “It’s a horrible situation when the president and the attorney general refuse to carry out their constitutional duties. We are now asking Congress to do its job.” But he says the law, in his view, “says that under unusual circumstances people who are friends of the court can participate in oral arguments.” Previously barred from doing so in the state’s key DOMA challenge, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, he says, his legal team is working on documents to take part in oral arguments “with real resources and with people who have a passion for success” in battling gay marriage. Mineau says the government’s defense of DOMA thus far “has amounted to something along the lines of ‘we’re personally against DOMA but we’re here today to defend it.’” That watered-down approach, he says, left traditional marriage supporters feeling hopeless…

“Speaker John Boehner is on our side,” Wolfgang says. “His position all along has been in favor of traditional marriage and DOMA. We’re pleased to have him in the House now that the president has made clear he will not uphold his duty to defend the law of the land.” Boehner’s office did not immediately return a call for comment, but late Wednesday, his spokesman Michael Steel fired off an email demanding that the president “explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation.”