NY judge strikes down part of US ban on gay marriage

Associated Press

NEW YORK

A federal judge in Manhattan joined a growing chorus of judges across the country Wednesday by striking down a key component of a federal law denying benefits to partners in a gay marriage.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones said the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s efforts to define marriage “intrude upon the states’ business of regulating domestic relations.”

She said, “That incursion skirts important principles of federalism and therefore cannot be legitimate, in this court’s view.”

The judge said the law fails because it tries to re-examine states’ decisions concerning same-sex marriage. She said such a sweeping review interferes with a system of government that places matters at the core of the domestic-relations law exclusively within the province of the states.

The ruling came in a case brought by Edith Windsor, a woman whose partner died in 2009, two years after they married in Canada. Because of the federal law, Windsor didn’t qualify for the unlimited marital deduction on her late spouse’s estate and was required to pay $363,053 in federal estate tax. Windsor sued the government in November 2010.

As part of her ruling, Judge Jones ordered the government to reimburse Windsor the money she had paid in estate tax.

The government declined to comment through Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for government attorneys in Manhattan.