Defense of Marriage Act

In the court case United States v. Windsor, problems provoked regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The DOMA was a United States federal law that prohibited homosexual marriage while defining a marriage as a relationship between a male and a female. This act was soon ruled unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the 5th amendment. Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer were happily married in Ontario, Canada (2007) until Thea Spyer died in 2009, leaving behind all their property for Edith…

produced the egg? Spouses have not always been entitled to inherit any of their deceased husband or wife’s property. In the United States today, all fifty states consider a surviving spouse an heir, entitled to a portion of the estate. Common law marriage is a legal concept that evolved to give support and inheritance rights to men and women who live together, holding themselves out as husband and wife, but never having been legally married. In Pennsylvania, doing this for six years gives…

social movement that started on June 26th, 2015, when the United States became the 21st country to legalize same sex marriage nationwide. Even though same sex marriage is now legalized, severals are still fighting against this. There have been many arguments and debates on social media regarding same sex marriage, with some being “pro-gay marriage” and others being “anti-gay marriage”.…

same sex marriage. Social rights and movements have always been a problem in the United States and has always been what has defined it. Same sex marriage has been one those social issues that has been of hot debate for quite some time and has heated up in recent years and split the country. Though same sex marriage is still not legal under federal law in the United States even though in many similarly advanced counties it is. The question then becomes why is same-sex marriage not…

The republicans want to increase the military defense budget while the democrats want to make cuts in it. The republicans believe that raising this budget is the only way to “restore the health of a defense industry weakened by a combination of neglect and misguided policies.” Republicans also believe that this lowered budget has been a large contributor to the lower morale…

What if marrying the person you were in love with, was not an option? Conservatives and opponents of same sex marriage, fight daily to keep the definition of traditional marriage from changing. Heterosexual marriage is a long honored tradition, which many believe should not be altered in any way. I will highlight the merits of the argument that marriage is a tradition that provides values, stability, and security emotionally and financially, as well as being considered nature’s way. I will also…

a name for the Civil War some Southerners use instead of the more antiquated “War of Northern Aggression”. The fight over whether or not to legalize same-sex marriage is a different kind of war between the states. This fight is between the states and the national government over who should have the authority to decide if same sex marriages are allowed or banned. When our founding fathers decided to make federalism a founding principle of American government, it was a radical notion. No real…

abuse, and possible job loss. In 1995, Utah became the first American state to enact DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), other states had declared only heterosexual marriages were the correct way. 2003, Massachusetts declares gay marriage legal, the first homosexual wedding was in 2004. How many years later for the second state to appeal this outrageous act? Five years later, Connecticut hops aboard the gay marriage legalization train. The following year Iowa, New Hampshire, and Vermont also…

summer of 2012, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which had forced the federal government to deny more than 1,000 federal benefits and protections to legally married homosexual couples, that were freely available to heterosexual couples. While DADT and section 3 of DOMA have both been demolished homosexuals in the military are still denied rights, benefits, and protections that…

Same-sex marriages has been an acceptable practice since 2001 when Netherlands and although not very well known it has been an accepted practice in a few U.S. states as early as 1975 when a Boulder, Colorado clerk issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple (Lahey & Anderson, 2004). It is a well-known and accepted fact that marriage for centuries have been defined as being between a man and a woman; however, over the years same-sex couples have fought diligently to receive the same legal…