Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA: Cedar Falls Reacts

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act in a 5-4 decision Wednesday meaning that the government will have to recognize same-sex marriages and extend federal benefits to those couples in some cases.

"The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion as reported by the Huffington Post. “By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”

The decision could have a national impact beyond the 12 states that recognize same-sex marriage depending on how the ruling is applied, according to the report in the Washington Post.

Federal employees living in the 12 states, including Iowa, and the District of Columbia where same-sex marriages are legal would get full spousal benefits immediately if DOMA is overturned. But it’s not clear what that decision would mean for those who were legally married in one place, D.C. or Maryland for example, but now live in a place without marriage equality, like Virginia, a report in the Washington Post said.

“It would make sense that these same-sex spouses would, in the absence of DOMA Section 3, be entitled to employment benefits on the same terms as all other married federal employees. It also makes sense that the federal government, as an employer, would treat all of its employees the same across its entire workforce,” said Gary Buseck, legal director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) in Boston.