Court Rules Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional

In what might be considered a bitter irony for conservatives, a U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts used a state's rights argument in one of two cases yesterday in which he ruled the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

The DOMA legislation, passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, defines marriage in federal law as a union between one man and one woman. In states like Massachusetts that have granted legal equality to same-sex marriages, the federal law denies benefits like Social Security survivors' payments and the right to joint filing of income taxes to partners in same-sex marriages. It also denies a partner in a same-sex marriage the right under federal law to have leave time from work to care for a sick spouse.

In a case brought by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Judge Joseph Tauro ruled the federal law requires Massachusetts to discriminate against its citizens in order to receive federal funds for some programs. More than 15,000 same-sex couples have been married in the Bay State since the state's legislature enacted a same-sex marriage law in 2004, following a ruling by the state's Supreme Court the previous year that the state's constitution requires a legal equality between same-sex and heterosexual marriages.

"This court has determined that it is clearly within the authority of the commonwealth to recognize same-sex marriages among its residents, and to afford those individuals in same-sex marriages any benefits, rights and privileges to which they are entitled by virtue of their marital status," Judge Tauro wrote.