Supreme Court Continues to Weigh on DOMA

photo courtesy by npr.org

DOMA continues to be in question as the Supreme Court is still deciding on whether or not the Defense of Marriage Act is to be ruled unconstitutional.



Back in 1996, the federal law was passed which prevented the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages, even in states that they were considered legal. It also prevented individual states from acknowledging gay and lesbian marriages that were performed in another state.

As of now, Section Three of DOMA, the pat that prevents federal government from recognizing gay marriage, is being challenged.

According to the Wisconsin Gazette, DOMA has been ruled unconstitutional numerous times including the case of Edith Windsor which was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in November of 2010.

Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer were together for more than 40 years when they married in Canada back in 2007, but resided in New York. After Spyer died of complications from multiple sclerosis, the estate was left to Windsor. Because of DOMA, Windsor was required to pay $363,000 in federal estate taxes.

If DOMA ends up being overturned, same sex marriages could face another issue. If the federal government recognizes gay marriage, would the marriage still be constitutionally recognized if the same sex couple moved from state where marriages has already been legalized to a state where same sex marriage is still illegal? According to Yahoo! News, Attorney Roberta Kaplan believes that if gay couples moved to the other states in the union where the marriages are illegal, their marriage would effectively disappear for federal and state purposes.

The final verdict for DOMA will be in late June.


*following article was published on The Scribe newspaper on April of 2013