Five of the Justices questioned the constitutionality of the law, noting that the issue of marriage has traditionally been an issue reserved to the states. However, other justces questioned whether proponents of the law had standing to bring the challenge to the Supreme Court. This gave rise to a possibility that the Supreme Court will not itself rule on the constitutionality of the Act, but instead let the Second Circuit case of Windsor v. United States stand. In Windsor, the Second Circuit found the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.
The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage for federal law purposes as a union between one man and one woman. As a result of the Act, legal benefits available to heterosexual married couples are not available to same sex legal unions.
The case itself involves the availability of the marital deduction in calculating the federal estate tax when the decedant was one spouse in a legal same sex marriage. By striking down the law as unconstitutional, the Second Circuit permitted a same sex spouse to benefit from the marital deduction and thus lower the estate's federal estate tax.
If the Act were struck down, it would have far-reaching implications from federal employee benefits to estate planning to possibly even immigration benefits.
On the day before, the Supreme Court held arguments on California's Proposition 8, which outlawed same sex marriages in California. On that case, the Justices appeard to be sharply divided. As with the argument over the Defense of Marriage Act, there appeared to be a real possibility that the Court would dismiss the case on a technicality ground, allowing a Ninth Circuit decision that found Proposition 8 unconstitutional stand.
By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
info@kovatchelderlaw.com
