UNITED STATES, Petitioner v. EDITH SCHLAIN WINDSOR, in her capacity as executor of the ESTATE OF THEA CLARA SPYER, et al., 570 U.S. 744

Summary

The state in which the decedent and the spouse resided recognized their same-sex marriage, and the estate contended that the refusal of the federal government to recognize the marriage for purposes of the estate tax exemption constituted a denial of constitutional rights. The U.S. Supreme Court held that § 7 was unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that was protected by the Fifth Amendment. The statute was applicable to a wide variety of over 1,000 federal statutes and regulations in addition to the tax exemption, and was directed to a class of persons the state sought to protect by recognizing same-sex marriages, in furtherance of no specific federal policy. The state's decision to give same-sex couples the right to marry conferred upon them a dignity and status of immense import, but the government used the state-defined class for the opposite and improper purpose of imposing restrictions and disabilities, and § 7 which sought to injure the very same-sex ...