In its motion to dismiss and memorandum in opposition to summary judgment, BLAG advances some, but not all of these interests as rational bases for DOMA. For that it went to DOMA's rather thin legislative history.Ĭontemporaneous with its enactment, Congress justified DOMA as: defending and nurturing the traditional institution of marriage promoting heterosexuality encouraging responsible procreation and childrearing preserving scarce government resources and defending traditional notions of morality. The Court refused to rule on that issue, because they did not think DOMA passed on "reasonable basis". A suspect class is one that has:Ī history of discrimination, an immutable characteristic upon which the classification is drawn, political powerlessness, and a lack of any relationship between the characteristic in question and the class's ability to perform in or contribute to society. In order to subject the law to "strict scrutiny", the Court would have needed to determine that homosexuals are a "suspect class" (which is not what it sounds like). The next argument was about what standard the Court should use for evaluating the constitutionality of DOMA - "strict scrutiny" or "reasonable basis". Windsor had not been married under state law, which would mean she did not have standing to bring the suit. This was an important point as BLAG tried to argue that Ms. Although New York did not allow same sex marriages to be performed until last year, it recognized marriages performed in other jurisdictions. They lived in New York City, where they registered as domestic partners in 1993 as soon as that option became available. Windsor was in a committed relationship with Thea Spyer beginning in 1963. The House of Representatives does not agree with DOJ on that and has charged the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) with defending DOMA. DOJ has, however, decided that Section 3 of DOMA is indefensible. Windsor would be up against Department of Justice attorneys.
That was what Edith Windsor was in United States District Court about. One of them is the unlimited marital deduction in computing estate taxes.
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There are over 1,000 statutory provisions in the United States Code in which "benefits, rights and privileges" hinge on marital status.