The Hill News

Members of the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) voted to intervene in ongoing court action against the same-sex marriage law on Wednesday afternoon.

In a party-line vote of 3-2, the five-member BLAG composed of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Democrats House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), gave the House general counsel the authority to retain outside counsel to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The action was taken little over two weeks after the administration announced that DOMA was "unconstitutional" and that it would not defend the law that has been on the books for 16 years.

Members of the BLAG met for nearly 30 minutes in Speaker Boehner's Capitol Hill office suite to discuss the matter, Hoyer told reporters following the meeting.