Will U.S. Supreme Court’s DOMA Decision Change Tennessee Marriage Law?

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent DOMA decision affects all federal laws, but does it directly affect Tennessee marriage law?

U.S. v. Windsor  

In yet another 5-to-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held as unconstitutional a section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as applied to same-sex married couples. More specifically, the court ruled that DOMA violated the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. U.S. v. Windsor, No. 12-307, Sup.Ct. of the U.S. (June 26, 2013).

In Windsor, a federal death-tax refund hinged upon the constitutionality of DOMA’s definition of “married” and “spouse” as applied to same-sex couples who were lawfully wed in jurisdictions that permit such marriages.

DOMA Unconstitutionally Limited the Definition of “Marriage” and “Spouse”

Section 3 of DOMA amended the Dictionary Act which controls the rules of construction for terms used in all federal statutes, rules, and regulations. After DOMA was signed into law by then President Clinton in 1996, §3 amended the Dictionary Act by restricting the meaning of “marriage” and “spouse” in all federal statutes to include only unions between members of the opposite sex.

It’s About the Taxes – Challenging DOMA and the IRS

The Windsor case involved a lesbian couple married in Ontario, Canada, in 2007 because of one domestic partner’s ill health. Back home in New York City, that first spouse died shortly thereafter in 2009, leaving her entire estate to her surviving same-sex spouse along with a $363,053.00 estate tax bill which was paid to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). At the time of death, New York recognized the same-sex Canadian marriage making it a state-sanctioned union.

The surviving spouse then sought a tax refund from the IRS claiming the marital estate tax exemption available to all surviving spouses. Because this married couple involved a woman and a woman, the IRS did not refund the estate tax, relying on the law at the time: the Dictionary Act as amended by §3 of DOMA. By definition, the survivor was not a “spouse.”

The Supreme Court affirmed both the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in holding §3 of DOMA unconstitutional on equal protection grounds.

Justice Kennedy delivered the court’s majority opinion and was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito dissenting.

What About Marriage in Tennessee? §2 of DOMA Stands

The High Court did not rule on the constitutionality of DOMA’s §2 which allows Tennessee and all other states to “refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed under the laws of other States.” Therefore, Tennessee still does not recognize lesbian and gay marriages entered into or sanctioned by other states.

In 2006, the Marriage Protection Amendment (Amendment 1) amended Tennessee’s Constitution by defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Voters overwhelmingly approved the referendum banning same-sex unions.

Tennessee law defining “marriage” as between heterosexual spouses only is not changed by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Windsor. However, in D.C. and the 13 states that do recognize same-sex marriages (CT, DE, IA, ME, MD, MA, MN, NH, NY, RI, VT, WA, and soon CA), homosexual couples lawfully married elsewhere will now have equal protection under federal law, the same protections enjoyed by heterosexual married couples in those states.

Retirement benefits through Social Security, for example, cannot be withheld from a married person because she is the same sex as her spouse. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), COBRA insurance coverage, are just a few examples of the federal laws significantly impacted by Windsor.

Divorce Attorney in Memphis TN

Memphis divorce attorney Miles Mason, Sr., practices family law exclusively and is founder of the Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC. Check out The Tennessee Divorce Client’s Handbook: What Every Divorcing Spouse Needs to Know, available on Amazon and Kindle. To schedule your confidential consultation, call us today at (901) 683-1850.