Attorneys for the State and City of New York, who were defending the marriage law, disagreed.
It notes that the government has launched a public consultation on changes to the marriage law.
He said the administration had bipartisan support in its bid to get the Supreme Court to nullify the marriage law.
WSJ: Justices Question Obama's Stance on Defense of Marriage Act
The marriage law is seen as France's most important social reform in France since the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.
Former President Bill Clinton, who signed the marriage law into effect 17 years ago, said this month he now backs the right of homosexuals to marry.
CNN: Obama views on same-sex marriage reflect societal shifts
The amendments to the marriage law would make divorce harder.
Both Rick Perry and Mitt Romney have said they support the repeal of the marriage law there, but what does the President hope is the outcome of this vote?
"I can't think of another instance where that's happened, " said Justice Stephen Breyer, a liberal, referring to the House's intervention in the federal marriage law case.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in a challenge to a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act the federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
In 1996, responding to a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that a ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage for the purpose of federal law.
Until now, the State Department had withheld these benefits citing the Defense of Marriage Law, which restricts the recognition of same-sex marriages on the federal level.
CNN: Benefits proposed for same-sex partners of U.S. diplomats
Surveys have showed that the divide is both political and generational: The Left is, for the most part, in favour of the same-sex marriage law while the hard Right, and leaders of the French Catholics, Muslims and Jews oppose it.
The biggest hurdle the couple faces is the federal Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA. The 1996 law allows states to ignore the marriage laws of other states and it specifically exempts states from being forced to accept tribal same-sex marriages.
CNN: Tribe marries same-sex couple but state won't recognize it
Furthermore, even if the Defense of Marriage Act is upheld, the law does not protect marriage within any state or city.
The court could historically alter how the law treats marriage, striking down laws across the country banning same-sex marriage and matching an apparent cultural shift toward acceptance of same-sex couples.
Windsor, which challenges the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that uses the traditional definition for federal law and says one state's definition cannot bind another's.
The 1996 federal law defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman and prohibits same-sex couples who are legally married under state law from receiving federal benefits like social security payments normally provided to married couples.
FORBES: Justices Scrutinize DOMA's Treatment Of Same-Sex Marriage
Weill, instrumental in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall law that allowed the marriage of commercial and investment banking, is considered the father of such financial supermarkets.
FORBES: Apple Loss Lands Nasdaq And S&P In The Red, Dow Up On Caterpillar, Boeing.
The 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage Act, denies federal tax and other benefits to same-sex married couples.
The new law penalizes marriage and for many upper-middle income families may boost federal marginal tax rates well above 40%.
The New Hampshire legislature this month is expected to vote on a bill that would repeal the same-sex marriage law there.
When Governor Chafee signs the bill into law, gay marriage will be legal in 10 states and Washington DC, the nation's capital city.
BBC: Rhode Island to legalise gay marriage after Senate vote
Hughes is Eldridge's spouse under New York law but, pursuant to the Defense of Marriage Act, not under federal law.
Mr Panetta said that while the remaining benefits are blocked by a federal law that does not recognise same-sex marriage, he foresaw a time "when the law will allow the department to grant full benefits to service members and their dependents, irrespective of sexual orientation".
The overriding legal question is whether the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law prevents states from defining marriage as California has.
This week election officials in the state of Washington announced that a referendum seeking to nullify the recently passed law legalizing same-sex marriage has qualified for the November ballot.
The tension between mother- and daughter-in-law started about a year into the Browns' marriage, when Ms. Brown got pregnant and her mother-in-law suddenly seemed to know everything.
WSJ: Getting Along With the Original Other Woman��Your Mother-in-Law
Later that month, Iceland's prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir married her partner, writer Jonina Leosdottir, on the day the country's gay marriage law came into force.
Even the business of catching adulterers in the act, once a dependable income stream for private eyes, dried up when a change to marriage law in 1973 meant the party seeking a divorce no longer needed to prove that a spouse had cheated.
Eight years ago, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purposes of federal law as the legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.
应用推荐