NEWS
United States v. Windsor (DOMA)
By Matthew Riva | July 1, 2013Edith Windsor is a widower who had to pay $363,000 in federal estate taxes after her wife died because the law prohibited gay couples from the same federal benefits and exemptions as straight ones. That law, the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, was enacted in September 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton. Among other parts, Section 3 put into writing and enforced federal — not state — non-recognition of same-sex marriages for federal benefit purposes but had no direct effect on individual states’ laws. President Barack Obama announced in February 2011, after Windsor was filed, he had directed the Department of Justice to stop enforcing Section 3 of DOMA.
