The year since the Supreme Court’s decisions in the cases challenging part of the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 has been a whirlwind.
Edie Windsor speaks onstage as Roberta Kaplan listens during Logo TV's 'Trailblazers' on June 23, 2014 in New York City.
Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for Logo TV
WASHINGTON — One year ago Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the Defense of Marriage Act's ban on recognizing same-sex couples' marriages. It also dismissed the appeal by supporters of California's Proposition 8 marriage amendment, allowing a trial court ruling striking down that marriage ban to stand.
The year since the Supreme Court's decisions in those cases has been one of near-constant and unbroken advancements for supporters of marriage equality — up to and including two federal court rulings on Wednesday.
Justice Anthony Kennedy's decision striking down section 3 of DOMA in United States v. Windsor has been used by federal appeals judges in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals — as well as by federal district court judges in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin — to strike down marriage bans and/or bans on recognizing same-sex couples' marriages entered into elsewhere. The decision also played into similar state court decisions in Arkansas, New Jersey, and New Mexico.
Windsor also formed a large part of the basis for a broad decision in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to examine any sexual orientation-based government classifications with heightened scrutiny.
Although it's been a whirlwind year, four moments in the first month after those decisions showed quite clearly the path that the country would be traveling.
June 28, 2013: Office of Personnel Management announces it is providing federal benefits to married same-sex couples using a "place of celebration" rule, allowing more couples to be covered.
LGBT advocates hoped the administration would use a "place of celebration" rule for recognizing same-sex couples' marriages under federal law — meaning if a marriage was legal in the place it happened, it would be recognized by the federal government anywhere. The other option for the rule, called "place of domicile," would have limited federal recognition to couples in those states with marriage equality.
The quick OPM decision, however, set the stage for a broad government policy of using the "place of celebration" rule to guide federal policy wherever possible. This past week, the Justice Department finished its post-Windsor review, announcing that most agencies are fully implementing marriage recognition policies and determining that only two agencies — the Veterans Affairs Department and Social Security Administration — would require legislative changes in order to allow for "place of celebration" recognition.
