Another Provision of DOMA Declared Unconstitutional

Edith Windsor of New York accumulated over $363,000 in federal estate taxes because the federal government did not recognize her Canadian marriage to Thea Spyer. If the federal government recognized the marriage, Windsor would not have had to pay any taxes after Spyer died in 2009.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones used a variation of rational basis to review the provision of DOMA that denies equal federal benefits to gay married couples. Under that standard, she found the justifications for the law to be wanting and ruled that the provision is a violation of the equal protection clause. Judge Jones’s decision makes the fourth time that a federal court has struck down this section of the law.

See Debra Cassens Weiss, Federal Judge Strikes Down Portion of DOMA in Estate Tax Case, ABA Journal, June 7, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.