Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a lawsuit on July 8, 2009, challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”). The law unfairly excludes more than 16,000 Massachusetts married same-sex couples and their families from critically important rights and protections based on marital status such as Social Security survivor benefits and the ability to file a joint federal tax return, among others.
The Commonwealth’s complaint alleges that DOMA, which affects more than 1,100 federal statutory provisions, violates the U.S. Constitution by interfering with the Commonwealth’s sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents. The complaint also alleges that DOMA exceeds Congress’s authority under the Spending Clause because Congress cannot require Massachusetts to treat married same-sex couples differently from all other married couples as a condition to the receipt of federal funding.
Prior to the enactment of DOMA in 1996, the federal government honored the marriages recognized by the states for the purposes of any federal program or statute. Section 3 of DOMA created a federal definition of marriage and, with it, a federal limitation on marriage.
Paragraph 44 of the Commonwealth's Complaint states "Approximately 550 employees of the Commonwealth include their same-sex spouses on their health insurance plans." Paragraph 51 states "MassHealth must treat married individuals differently depending only on whether they are married to a person of the same sex." These are two examples which indicate that Massachusetts is making a determination about whether a married couple is a same-sex married couple or not. Given that Massachusetts does not distinguish between same-sex married couples and so-called opposite sex couples in its marriage licenses, how does the Commonwealth know the sex is of the people it married? Does it use driver's license information? Social Security records? Something else? How is Massachusetts "sexual-orientation profiling" its married residents and employees in order to implement DOMA?
Posted by: Sherri Morris | 07/30/2009 at 02:10 PM
Thank you for your comment. Applicants for Mass Health must include the gender and the relationship of each person for whom he or she is seeking coverage. The applicant for Veteran’s benefits and employees of the Commonwealth who are seeking health insurance coverage for their spouse must submit a marriage license which, in Massachusetts indicates the gender of each spouse. This information is required in each situation, irrespective of whether a couple is same sex or different sex.
Posted by: Massachusetts Attorney General | 08/18/2009 at 02:08 PM