Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States law, passed in 1996, that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The law excluded same-sex marriage from legal recognition by the federal government. The law also stated that U.S. states could not be forced to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. In June 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States declared DOMA unconstitutional. The ruling permitted same-sex spouses to receive the same federal benefits as heterosexual spouses.
Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican, wrote the Defense of Marriage Act. He introduced the bill to the House of Representatives in May 1996. Section 2 of the bill exempted U.S. states or territories from recognizing same-sex marriages authorized by other states and territories. Section 3 of the bill defined the word marriage to mean “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” The bill defined spouse as “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”
The House Judiciary Committee issued a report supporting the legislation. The report argued that DOMA was necessary for “defending and nurturing the institution of traditional, heterosexual marriage”; “defending traditional notions of morality”; and “protecting state sovereignty and democratic self-governance.” The bill passed the House in July and was approved by the Senate in September. President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law on Sept. 21, 1996.
Beginning in the early 2000’s, a number of states legalized same-sex marriage. Many other states, however, passed laws or state constitutional amendments limiting marriage to relationships between a man and a woman. DOMA prevented same-sex married couples from filing joint federal tax returns and from receiving various federal benefits. Many opponents of DOMA argued that the law’s provisions violated the rights of same-sex couples.
Several lawsuits challenged DOMA in the courts. In July 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro of Massachusetts declared Section 3 of the act to be unconstitutional. He found that DOMA violated equal protection principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution (see Fifth Amendment). Tauro wrote that DOMA was driven by a desire to harm a politically unpopular group. The judge also wrote that the federal law infringed on states’ traditional rights to regulate marriage.
In November 2010, a lawsuit challenging DOMA was filed against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case involved Edith Windsor, a New York widow, who was forced to pay more than $363,000 in federal estate taxes after the death of her female spouse because their marriage was not recognized under federal law. If Windsor had been married to a man, she would not have had to pay the estate tax. In February 2011, President Barack Obama directed the U.S. Department of Justice to cease its legal defense of DOMA. Attorney General Eric Holder explained that the administration would no longer enforce a law it believed was unconstitutional. In October 2012, a federal appeals court in New York also ruled that DOMA violated equal protection principles in the Constitution. On June 26, 2013, in deciding Windsor’s case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared DOMA “unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.”
In late 2022, Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed, the Respect for Marriage Act, which served to repeal DOMA. The new law guaranteed that the federal government would recognize all same-sex marriages that are valid under state law. It also required all states to recognize same-sex marriages—as well as interracial marriages—performed in other states. The Respect for Marriage Act also included provisions to ensure that nonprofit religious organizations would not be obligated to participate in the celebration of same-sex marriages.
