High court to take up Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8

>>> two other big civil rights cases looming before the high court involving marriage equality . specifically the defense of marriage act and california 's proposition 8. as the justices get set to hear those cases in march, the president took steps to some activist space is a sign that he is getting ready to fully embrace a federal constitutional right for marriage equality . joining me now to talk about that is immigration attorney and lgbt rights activist, founder of the doma project. it is great to have you here. this was big news on friday with the late filing of this brief. the justice department to get brief -- to the supreme court on friday about doma . here is what it says. law denies to tens of thousands of same-sex couples legally married under state law and for practical benefits available to legally married opposite sex couples because the discrimination cannot be justified as substantially furthering any for governmental section 3 is unconstitutional. what kind of message does this send to the court from the white house specifically.

>> this is the first time that the -- president of the united states had an opportunity to put forward to the supreme court that no -- in no case can discrimination of marriage pass constitutional muster. and -- specifically, the white house 's arguing that a heightened level of scrutiny should be applied to discrimination against gay and lesbian people in marriage.

>> one thing we have seen certainly through the inaugural, certainly through the president's state of the union address is the fact he has been sending a very crisp and clear message to the justices. who also watched the news and follow public opinion. how do you think that this is going to impact the legal considerations that are going to take place next month? again, reminding everybody we are talking about doma which is federal and prop 8 which deals with california .

>> california .

>> the president is right now speaking about a federal statute , and as you noted in the inaugural address , he was standing just a few fee weight from the nine members of the supreme court when he said essentially no law that descriminates against day gay and lesbian approximate people in marriage can pass constitutional must are. this is the president of the united states . it's the department of justice . this is a persuasive on the members of the court, and i think ultimately the obama administration will prevail in court on the defense of marriage act .

>> now, this is going to be a big one to watch coming up in march. we need to kwet you back on so we can talk about couples and what that means to the immigration debate . lgbt rights and attorney co-founder of the doma project.