Multiple sources have confirmed that Attorney General Kathleen Kane of Pennsylvania is expected to announce today that her office won’t defend the state in a federal lawsuit that challenges Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage.

Kane, is named along with Governor Tom Corbett as a defendant in the suit

Kane, a Democrat, supports gay marriage.  Pennsylvania law includes a provision allowing the governor’s legal team to defend state law in her place, should it be more “efficient,” or in the state’s interest to play it that way. Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett opposes gay marriage, but due to some recent Republican politicians “change of heart” at this time it is unsure if Corbet  who is facing a very tough re-election in 2014 will defend the law.

The suit was filed in Harrisburg and is believed to be the first federal case on the gay marriage issue since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Article 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit, known as Whitewood v. Corbett, on Tuesday on behalf of 21 state residents. The plaintiffs are 10 couples and one widow who want to marry here, want the state to recognize their out-of-state marriages or want equal protections granted to straight married couples.

Pennsylvania, the only state in the northeast without provisions for same-sex civil unions or marriages