Supreme Court Ruling Declares DOMA Unconstitutional
DOMA goes down! After agonizing months, the Supreme Court of the United States has finally issued ruling on the challenge to DOMA filed by Edith Windsor, a lesbian window forced a lesbian widow to pay steep estate taxes after the death of her wife.
"DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment," the Court's majority opinion declared. "DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty."
The Defense of Marriage Act was passed with bipartisan support and signed by Bill Clinton in 1996. It strictly defined marriage, as far as the federal government was concerned, as “only a legal union between one man and one woman.”
Edith Windsor, 83, acknowledges her supporters as she leaves the Supreme Court March 27, 2013 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case 'Edith Schlain Windsor, in Her Capacity as Executor of the Estate of Thea Clara Spyer, Petitioner v. United States.'
At the time of its passage, no states allowed same-sex unions. Now, twelve states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage and there is more opposition to DOMA and support of same-sex equality as a whole than ever before.
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