The Defense of Marriage Act known as DOMA, which defines that marriage is between a man and a woman is expected to be strucked down as unconstitutional by many gay activists. The Supreme Court’s ruling on DOMA is expected to be released end of this month.

But as Erin Fuchs of Business Insider writes, the high court could surprise everyone by not ruling on the issue at all. A situation that, according to one California law professor could be messy.

“It would be a really chaotic situation,” said UCLA law professor Adam Winkler, speaking with the Business Insider. “It would be terrible.”

While it may seem unfathomable that the Supreme Court would take DOMA, and then refuse to give a decision on a hot issue, it is still a possibility, noted Fuchs. The reason being is because the Obama administration’s Department of Justice has refused to defend DOMA in court.

It is usually up to the Justice Department to defend federal laws, but since the president’s administration does not defend DOMA, a Republican-led House committee called the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) took the mantle of defending DOMA.

According to Fuchs, in order to defend a law, a legal party must have “standing” or a sufficient connection to a case to get involved. A committee like BLAG may not have the standing to defend a federal law.

Another issue is that the president asked the Supreme Court to hear the case after an appeals court found DOMA unconstitutional and the Obama administration might not have the standing to petition the Supreme Court since it wasn’t the losing party on the issue.

These matters would complicate a Supreme Court ruling, which the high court might avoid all at once by refusing to have a clear stance on DOMA.

Even though several judges from the court may find DOMA unconstitutional, the administration would need to keep enforcing it.

Married gay couples can continue to fight DOMA in federal courts, and judges could deem the law unconstitutional in their own jurisdictions. Such ruling will allow gay couples to get federal benefits and leading to a fractured system where some places finds DOMA illegal while others do not.

The Business Insider explained that the only way DOMA could be struck down is if Congress decides to take up the issue and act on it. Another way is if a same-sex couple, who lost a district court case files an appeal.

As the losing party, the couple could potentially be eligible to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case.

Despite this possible scenario, Adam Winkler of the New Republic said that it could be tempting for justices to say BLAG doesn’t have standing and simply punt on the issue.