U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken, a federal judge in Oakland, California, late Thursday struck down as unconstitutional a provision of DOMA, the federal Defense of Marriage Act. This is the second federal judge to rule the same segment of DOMA unconstitutional and at least the fifth federal case to find the 1996 law unconstitutional. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have also declared the law — which bans same-sex couples from receiving legal federal recognition of their unions, about 1100 benefits afforded automatically to heterosexual couples, and defines marriage as one man, one woman — unconstitutional, and are refusing to defend it in court.