Victory for Gay Rights

            On Wednesday June 26, 2013 the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that denied federal benefits to married gay couples. It also paved the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California. The justices made two 5-4 rulings in their final session. The first decision got rid of the federal anti-gay marriage law that kept same-sex couples from receiving tax, health, and pension benefits. The other was technical ruling that wasn’t about same-sex marriage, but declared California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional.
             This ruling also made the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. DOMA was a federal law enacted in September 1996, while former President Clinton was in office, that allowed states to not recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. The law defined a “spouse” and its related terms as a heterosexual couple in a recognized marriage, Section 3 of the law codified non-recognition of same-sex marriages for all federal purposes, including insurance benefits for government employees, social security survivors' benefits, immigration, bankruptcy, and the filing of joint tax returns; as well as excluding same-sex spouses from the scope of laws protecting families of federal officers laws evaluating financial aid eligibility, and federal ethics laws applicable to opposite-sex spouses.
             Clinton – along with key legislators – later advocated for DOMA's repeal. The Obama administration announced in 2011 that it had concluded Section 3 was unconstitutional and, though it would continue to enforce the law while it existed, it would no longer defend it in court. In United States vs. Windsor (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court declared Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment – protects against abuse of government authority.
             The crowd outside the Supreme Court that day, June 26, began hugging each other and jumping up and down after the decision, at 11 a.m., on DOMA was announced. So, what’s next for California? A spokesman for the 9^th U.S. Circuit of Appeals said Wednesday that the court will likely take at least 25 days before gay marriages resume in California and for the Supreme Court’s ruling to become official. The Supreme Court said it may continue to bar gay marriages even beyond the 25-day period if proponents of Proposition 8, the state’s gay marriage ban, ask for a rehearing. Governor Jerry Brown said he has directed the California Department of Public Health to start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples as soon as the appeals court hold is lifted.