Two Lawsuits Challenge Constitutional Validity Of American Defense Of Marriage Act

The New York Times on a challenge to the constitutional validity of the American Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that prohibits the federal government from recognising any and all same sex marriage, Joanne Pederson and her spouse Ann Meitzen, married in Connecticut, filing suit against the government Tuesday. The couple, who have been together for 12 years and who married in 2008, are joining the suit with another couple, filed by a Boston-based gay rights legal organization, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. Ms. Meitzen is a social worker who has had health issues, and Ms. Pederson, a civilian retiree from the Department of Naval Intelligence, attempted unsuccessfully to enrol her spouse in the federal employee health benefits program. The American Civil Liberties Union is filing the second suit on behalf of 81 year old Edith S. Windsor, whose spouse Thea C. Spyer died last year. The two women, a couple for 44 years, and the subjects of a documentary film, residents of New York, married in Toronto, Ontario in 2007, and New York State officially recognises same sex marriages performed elsewhere. The federal government, however, does not, and so an estate tax of $350,000 was collected. Mary Bonauto, the director of the Civil Rights Project for the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, says that the cases demonstrate same sex couples “are falling through the safety net other people count on,” and that while the federal government has left the definition of marriage to states, they have “respected those determinations, except in the instances of gay and lesbian couples marrying,” resulting in a violation of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.