Massachusetts Challenges Federal Defense of Marriage Act
July 8, 2009
Massachusetts sued the U.S. government on Wednesday, challenging the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The state of Massachusetts says the Defense of Marriage Act denies same-sex couples essential rights.
”We’re taking this action today because, first, we believe that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) directly interferes with Massachusetts’ long-standing sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents,” Attorney General Martha Coakley said Wednesday afternoon. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
“They are entitled to equal treatment under the laws regardless of whether they are gay or straight,” Coakley said at a news conference to discuss the lawsuit. “Massachusetts has a single category of married persons, and we view all married persons equally and identically,” she said. “DOMA divides that category into two distinct and unequal classes of marriage.”
Before the law was passed, Coakley said, the federal government recognized that defining marital status was the “exclusive prerogative of the states.” Now, because of the U.S. law’s definition of marriage, same-sex couples are denied access to benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including federal income tax credits, employment benefits, retirement benefits, health insurance coverage and Social Security payments, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also argues that the federal law requires the state to violate the constitutional rights of its citizens by treating married heterosexual couples and married same-sex couples differently when determining eligibility for Medicaid benefits and when determining whether the spouse of a veteran can be buried in a Massachusetts veterans’ cemetery.
“In enacting DOMA, Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states’ efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people,” the state wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in federal court. [Copy of Lawsuit]
Besides Massachusetts, five other states—Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Iowa—have legalized gay marriage. Gay marriage opponents in Maine said Wednesday that they had collected enough signatures to put the state’s pending law on the November ballot for a possible override.
The Justice Department had not seen the lawsuit and cannot respond until it has a chance to review it, spokesman Charles Miller said.
The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted when it appeared Hawaii would soon legalize same-sex marriages and opponents worried that other states would be forced to recognize them.
President Barack Obama has pledged to work to repeal the law, although gay rights activists criticized the administration last month after Justice Department lawyers defended it in a court brief. White House aides said they were doing their jobs to support a law that is on the books.
This is the second lawsuit filed in Massachusetts challenging the law.
