The two cases, both decided on 5-4 votes, concerned the constitutionality of a key part of a federal law, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), that denied benefits to same-sex married couples, and a voter-approved California state law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.
The court struck down Section 3 of Doma, which limited the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal benefits, as a violation of the US Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.
By striking down Section 3 of Doma, the court cleared the way for legally married couples to claim more than 1,100 federal benefits, rights and burdens linked to marriage status.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 27th, 2013.
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