Judge’s Ruling Adds to String in Favor of Same-Sex Couples
A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday threw out a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, becoming the latest court to rule that the law passed by Congress to prohibit federal recognition of same-sex marriage violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples.
effrey S. White, a United States District Court judge appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, ruled that the act violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution by denying Blue Cross health benefits to the spouse of Karen Golinski, who works as a staff lawyer in the United States Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit. She married her partner of 20 years, Amy Cunninghis, in August 2008 during the brief period when same-sex marriages were permitted in California.
The decision is the latest in a string of federal court rulings against the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages conducted in states where it is legal. More challenges are moving through other federal courts, and the Supreme Court seems likely to take up the question.
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