Supreme Court grants historic win to legally married gay couples

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WASHINGTON -- In a historic day for gay rights, the Supreme Court Wednesday gave the nation's legally married gay couples equal federal footing with all other married Americans and also cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.

In deciding its first cases on the issue, the high court did not issue the sweeping declaration sought by gay-rights advocates that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry in any state. But in two rulings, both by slim 5-4 majorities, the justices gave same-sex marriage supporters encouragement in confronting the nationwide patchwork of laws that outlaw such unions in roughly three dozen states.


In the first of the narrow rulings in its final session of the term, the court wiped away part of a federal anti-same-sex marriage law, the Defense of Marriage Act, that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits that are otherwise available to married couples.


President Barack Obama praised the court's ruling against the federal marriage act, labeling the law "discrimination enshrined in law." "It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people," Obama said in a statement. "The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he was disappointed with the outcome of the federal marriage case and hoped states continue to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Boehner, as speaker, had stepped in as the main defender of the law before the court after the Obama administration declined to defend it.


California, where same-sex marriage was briefly legal in 2008, would be the 13th state, along with the District of Columbia, to allow same-sex couples to marry and would raise the share of the U.S. population in same-sex marriage states to 30 percent. Six states have adopted same-sex marriage in the past year, amid a rapid shift in public opinion that now shows majority support for the right to marry in most polls.


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The picture is more complicated for same-sex couples who traveled to another state to get married, or who have moved from a state supporting same-sex marriage since being wed.



What the same-sex marriage decision means


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BENEFITS FOR SPOUSES. It seems clear that legally married same-sex couples where one member is employed by the federal government are entitled to spousal benefits, just the same as any other married couple. For other legally married couples who don't live in states where same-sex marriage is recognized, there's some question as to whether the "state of celebration" or "state of residence" matters. Usually, the former is the standard used, meaning a marriage is valid if it's valid in the state it was celebrated. That would mean most legally married same-sex couples, regardless of where they live, are entitled to spousal benefits.

TAX LAWS. Some areas, such as tax law, may require additional rule-making before same-sex couples are treated equally. "Some operate just based on policy, without getting into a regulation or statute, so those can be modified very quickly," Tara Borelli, an attorney at Lambda Legal. "Others require rule-making."

OTHER STATUS CHANGES. Others require statutory changes. Borelli notes Social Security will probably have to be changed by Congress for same-sex couples to be treated equally.

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BINATIONAL COUPLES. It does open the door for binational same-sex couples to be treated equally under the law. That means that comprehensive immigration reform probably need not include a provision specifically tailored to making sure binational partners of same-sex couples can get visas automatically, the same as opposite-sex partners.

-- The Washington Post


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