DOMA

Hearing a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows federal benefits to go only to heterosexual married couples, the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of the statute and indicated that it might strike down a section of the 1996 law.

At issue in Wednesday’s oral argument was the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, passed by overwhelming margins in both houses of Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton.

A section of the law, in effect, bars federal agencies from recognizing same-sex marriages, even in the states where they are legal.

After the oral arguments, NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reported that there seemed to be the five votes on the court that would be needed to invalidate the law. Read more »

This week, more than 250 major corporations, cities and employers declared that same-sex marriage ought to be recognized under federal law everywhere in the United States. What brought about this dramatic shift? And why do some of America’s leading conservative institutions today embrace marriage equality?

That story actually began over three decades ago.

For the owners of the Village Voice in 1982, it was a simple question. Should we consider same-sex couples equally with married opposite sex couples when it comes to offering health care and other workplace benefits?

Yes, they agreed. Read more »

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, the Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat, whose political career spanned five decades, and who was the architect of the single-bullet theory adopted as the U.S. government’s official explanation of the President John F. Kennedy assassination, died today at the age of 82. Senator Spector, whose political evolutions included rallying for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, only to call for the repeal of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 that bans the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, 13 years later. Senator Specter died of complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, according to his son Shanin Specter. Read more »

MANHATTAN (CN) - An Obama administration lawyer urged the 2nd Circuit to ensure that an 83-year-old lesbian widow receives the same spousal benefits as other Americans.     

Edith Schlain Windsor filed a federal complaint against the government after she had to pay $363,053 in federal estate tax when her wife, Thea Spyer, succumbed to multiple sclerosis and a heart condition in 2009.     

The couple had been together in New York City since 1963 and married each other in Canada and another jurisdiction where same-sex marriage is legal.      Read more »