WASHINGTON, D.C. – In spite of Obama Administration efforts to roll back enforcement of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—and despite a federal court ruling last week that the law is unconstitutional—a leading House Republican says that GOP leaders will keep defending the law in court—and spending taxpayer money to do so.

Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-California) told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast last week, “The rule of law keeps America strong. When you break down the rule of law, you break down society,” adding, “There can’t be a system where somebody decides, ‘Well, that’s law, but I just don’t like it.’ It doesn’t matter what the issue is. We have a court system. We have a rule of law we go through. And I think you have to go through the system.”

House Republicans have been defending DOMA since March 2011, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called it unconstitutional, and ordered the Justice Department to stop defending it.