The Obama administration recently announced that the U.S. Department of Justice will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act against challenges questioning whether the law is constitutional.

President Barack Obama has long opposed the act, and during the campaign he would work for its repeal. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Justice defended the law when it was challenged.

But the administration undertook a legal review after new lawsuits challenged the law in a different circuit court, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to Congress. The new lawsuits would have forced the administration to make more proactive arguments in favor of the law. After the review was finished, Obama and Holder concluded the law was unconstitutional, and they are now declining to defend it.

The act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, says that states do not have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, and that the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage.

To be clear, ending the defense of DOMA doesn"t mean a full repeal is any closer. But it does signal that the White House is giving more attention to the issue. So we change the status of this promise from Stalled to In the Works.