The US Supreme Court has held two days of hearings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevents couples who have married in states where same-sex marriage is legal from enjoying the same federal rights and benefits as straight couples. The court's nine justices are questioning the constitutionality of the controversial 1996 law. The plaintiff is Edith Windsor, 83, who was ordered to pay federal inheritance taxes of $US363,000 following the 2009 death of Thea Spyer, her partner of more than 40 years. The couple had married in Canada in 2007. The surviving half of a straight couple would not have faced the same tax demand. Justice Ruth Ginsburg suggested DOMA represented two kinds of wedlock: "full marriage and skim milk marriage", while her colleague Elena Kagan said DOMA was "infected by animus, fear and dislike." Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative whose swing vote on gay and lesbian rights could decide the outcome, said he was "troubled" by how the DOMA case impacted on the rights of states to set out their own marriage laws. The White House has called for the law to be overturned. A ruling will take months.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 29th March 2013 - 7:05pm