Supreme Court Strikes Portion of DOMA

On June 26, 2013, the United States Supreme Court issued a pair of opinions favorable to the gay rights movement, ruling that married same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits and, by declining to decide a case from California, effectively allowing same-sex marriages in that state. In United States v. Windsor (June 26, 2013), the Court held that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional because it violates the Fifth Amendment. The Court’s decision to strike down this provision, which denies more than 1,000 federal benefits to same-sex married couples, may dramatically transform the legal status and financial standing of hundreds of thousands of gay Americans. The decision on the federal law was 5 to 4, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy writing the majority opinion, which the four liberal-leaning justices – Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan – joined.