Eight Key Estate Planning Opportunities Arising from the Supreme Court's Decision on Same-Sex Marriage

On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that a state ban on same sex marriage is unconstitutional, in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The landmark ruling in the combined cases known as Obergefell v. Hodges struck down every state ban on same-sex marriage in the country, and by virtue of this ruling, Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was also struck down, which declared that states have the right to deny recognition of same-sex marriages licensed in other states.

Two years ago in United States v. Windsor the Supreme Court found that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional, which had prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages for the purpose of federal laws or programs, even if the marriage was legal where performed. As a result of Windsor, same-sex married couples have enjoyed most of the same federal benefits that opposite sex couples receive, such as spousal benefits for federal employees. However, in Windsor the Supreme Court stopped short of declaring that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional, electing instead to limit its ruling to Section 3 of DOMA. In the two years since Windsor, states were still permitted to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples, although most state bans had been challenged in state or federal court and were making their way through the legal process. This inconsistency with marriage laws across the country is what eventually led to the Obergefell case reaching the Supreme Court.

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