Windsor v. United States
| United States v. Windsor | |
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| Argued March 27, 2013 Decided June 26, 2013 |
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| Full case name | United States, Petitioner v. Edith Schlain Windsor, in Her Capacity as Executor of the Estate of Thea Clara Spyer, et al. |
| Docket nos. | 12-307 |
| Citations | 570 U.S. ___ (more)
133 S.Ct. 2675; 186 L.Ed.2d 808
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| Related cases | |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Opinion announcement | Opinion announcement |
| Prior history | DOMA declared unconstitutional sub. nom. Windsor v. United States, 833 F. Supp. 2d 394 (S.D.N.Y. 2012); Affirmed, 699 F.3d 169 (2d Cir. 2012) |
| Holding | |
| Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which federally defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, is unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause's guarantee of equal protection. The federal government must recognize same-sex marriages that have been approved by the states. The judgment of the Second Circuit is affirmed. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Kennedy, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan |
| Dissent | Roberts |
| Dissent | Scalia, joined by Thomas; Roberts (part I) |
| Dissent | Alito, joined by Thomas (parts II, III) |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. Art. III, U.S. Const. amend. V; Defense of Marriage Act § 3 | |
 Interview with Roberta Kaplan on Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA, After Words, C-SPAN
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United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. ___ (2013) (Docket No. 12-307), is a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to opposite-sex unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment; Justice Kennedy wrote: "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."
Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, a same-sex couple residing in New York, were lawfully married in Toronto, Canada, in 2007. Later in 2008, New York recognized their marriage following a court decision. Spyer died at the age of 77 in 2009, leaving her entire estate to Windsor. Windsor sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses. She was barred from doing so by Section 3 of DOMA (codified at 1 U.S.C. § 7), which provided that the term "spouse" only applied to marriages between a man and woman. The Internal Revenue Service found that the exemption did not apply to same-sex marriages, denied Windsor's claim, and compelled her to pay $363,053 in estate taxes.
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