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Source: Reuters -
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Massachusetts sued the US government to seek federal marriage
benefits for about 16,000 gay and lesbian couples who have wed
since the state became the nation's first to legalize same-sex
marriage.
The state is challenging the constitutionality of the federal 1996
Defense of Marriage Act, saying it denies essential rights and
protections to married gay couples.
The federal government is interfering with the state's sovereign
authority to define and regulate marriage, said the lawsuit filed
in federal court in Boston.
It calls the law overreaching and discriminatory.
Others have challenged the law in the past but Massachusetts is the
first state to do so.
"We view all married persons equally and identically,"
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley told a news
conference.
The lawsuit is the latest skirmish over gay marriage in the US
federal court system after a handful of political filmmakers led by
a Democratic consultant crafted a gay rights challenge in May that
they hope will reach the Supreme Court.
It also follows a separate lawsuit filed by a group of married gay
couples in Massachusetts in March that also challenged the same
portion of the Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage as a legal
union between a man and a woman.
Fairness and equality
This year has seen a sharp expansion of laws legalizing gay
marriage.
In a single week in April, Iowa and Vermont joined Massachusetts and Connecticut in allowing gay couples to wed legally. Maine followed suit in May.
New Hampshire did so a month later. And New York is considering
a similar law.
But same-sex couples legally married in any of those states cannot
access the federal protections and programs granted to straight
married couples.
"It's a simple matter of fairness and equality. We have never had
first and second-class marriages in this country. We should not
start now," said Gary Buseck, legal director of Gay & Lesbian
Advocates & Defenders, a group of attorneys who argued the case
that brought gay marriage to Massachusetts.
The Defense of Marriage Act denies married gay and lesbian couples
access to more than 1,000 federal programs and legal protections,
gay rights advocates say.
Coakley cited several items denied, including federal income tax
credits, employment and retirement benefits, health insurance
coverage and Social Security payments.
Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research
Council, dismissed the lawsuit as frivolous and urged federal
courts to dismiss it to preserve the right of the people to decide
such important public policy decisions.
Before 1996, US states had the right to define marital status under
state sovereignty, the lawsuit said.
Massachusetts wants the right to define marriage within its own
boundaries, it added, noting this would not affect other
states.
"This is a good argument since the US Supreme Court has many times
stated that domestic relations are a matter of state sovereignty,"
wrote Boston University School of Law professor Linda McClain in an
analysis of the lawsuit.
