The Supreme Court ruled today that the court had jurisdiction to hear the United States vs Windsor case, in which Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, were married in Ontario, Canada in 2007.
When Spyer died in 2009, she left her entire estate to Windsor. Windsor sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses, but was barred from doing so by §3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which amended the Dictionary Act—a law providing rules of construction for over 1,000 federal laws and the whole realm of federal regulations—to define “marriage” and “spouse” as excluding same-sex partners.
The Court also held that DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.