Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley sues the U.S. Government

Massachusetts, the first American state to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Hurrah!

According to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, aka DOMA, violates the US Constitution by interfering with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit. The lawsuit focuses on the section of DOMA that creates a federal definition of marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife. Prior to DOMA, the U.S. federal government recognized that defining marital status was the exclusive prerogative of the states. Ms. Coakley contends that Congress intruded into a matter that should have been left to the states.

DOMA bars married same-sex couples from getting more than 1000 marriage-related benefits that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, including health insurance for spouses of federal employees and tax deductions for couples who jointly file federal income tax returns.

One more time.

DOMA bars married same-sex couples from getting more than 1000 marriage-related benefits that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, including health insurance for spouses of federal employees and tax deductions for couples who jointly file federal income tax returns.

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