Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives, Respondent
Paul D. Clement, Counsel of Record
On September 21, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The Act, which was passed by large margins in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, allowed States to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages sanctioned in other States (Section 2) and prohibited Federal marriage benefits from being conferred on same-sex unions (Section 3). Following enactment, the constitutionality of the law was challenged in numerous venues. In 2010, Edith Windsor, who had been required to pay $363,054 in Federal estate taxes following the death of Thea Spyer, her longtime partner (whom she had married…
