Simone Lawson
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed in 1996 by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The act was designed to prevent the Full Faith and Credit Clause from being applied to states that prohibited same-sex marriages. In 2004, President George W. Bush endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples because he found DOMA to be vulnerable. Clinton later claimed that he signed DOMA to avoid associating himself politically with the then-unpopular cause of same-sex marriage and to defuse momentum for a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Year passed | 1996 |
| Passed by | Congress |
| Signed into law by | President Bill Clinton |
| Reason | To prevent the Full Faith and Credit Clause from being applied to states that prohibited same-sex marriages |
| Effect | Allowed states to avoid recognising same-sex marriages celebrated in other states |
| Effect | Allowed the federal government to ignore same-sex marriages celebrated in any American state or anywhere abroad |
| Effect | Denied federal benefits to spouses of same-sex marriages |
| Effect | Denied same-sex couples the ability to file as "married" on tax returns |
| Effect | Denied same-sex couples Social Security survivor benefits |
| Effect | Denied same-sex couples military family benefits |
| Effect | Denied same-sex couples hospital visitation rights |
| Effect | Denied same-sex couples healthcare benefits |
| Status | Unconstitutional; repealed by Congress in 2022 |
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What You'll Learn
Clinton's public position on same-sex marriage shifted after signing DOMA
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. DOMA was a federal law that banned the recognition of same-sex marriage by the federal government and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. The act defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and it denied federal benefits to spouses in same-sex marriages.
In 2004, President George W. Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, as he found DOMA to be vulnerable to legal challenges. Bush's amendment did not succeed, and in 2009, Clinton came out in support of same-sex marriage. He spoke out against California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, and recorded robocalls urging Californians to vote against it. Clinton also supported the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation introduced in 2009 to repeal DOMA.
In 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the 14th Amendment requires all US states to recognize same-sex marriages, rendering DOMA unenforceable. This decision made same-sex marriage federal law and ensured that state bans on gay marriage violated the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.
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DOMA was passed to protect the 'traditional' definition of marriage
In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The act was designed to protect the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. It specifically denied federal benefits to spouses of same-sex marriages, such as the ability to file joint federal tax returns and access social security survivor benefits.
DOMA was passed in response to the Baehr decision in Hawaii, which allowed for same-sex marriages. The act prevented the Full Faith and Credit Clause from being applied to states that prohibited same-sex marriages. This allowed states to avoid recognising same-sex marriages celebrated in other states and allowed the federal government to ignore same-sex marriages celebrated in any American state or abroad.
The passage of DOMA was supported by the Republican Party, which endorsed the act and referenced Section 2, stating that it rejected "the distortion of [anti-discrimination] laws to cover sexual preference". The Democratic Party, on the other hand, did not mention DOMA or same-sex marriage in its platform that year.
In the years following the passage of DOMA, same-sex marriage gained ground in various states. By 2015, the majority of states had approved recognition of same-sex marriages, but 13 states still prohibited it. The movement for gay rights led to efforts to pass a domestic partnership law, which gave state recognition to civil unions between same-sex partners.
The enactment of DOMA did not ban same-sex marriages, but it did limit federal benefits to opposite-sex couples. This resulted in certain protections in inheritance rights, healthcare coverage, and tax law being unavailable to same-sex couples. However, following the Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Windsor in 2013, Section 3 of DOMA was found to be unconstitutional as it violated the equal protection principles guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. This ruling had major effects on families, impacting various federal rights and benefits such as military benefits, social security, tax categories, hospital visitation rights, and healthcare benefits.
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DOMA denied same-sex couples federal benefits
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed in 1996 by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The act was designed to prevent the Full Faith and Credit Clause from being applied to states that prohibited same-sex marriages.
DOMA did not ban same-sex marriages in itself, nor did it force any state to ban them. Instead, it represented an effort to protect the institution of marriage and limit it to opposite-sex couples. Under DOMA, the federal government announced the definition of marriage under federal law as the union of one man and one woman only.
DOMA specifically denied federal benefits to spouses of same-sex marriages. The act stated that any federal law that applied to married couples did not apply to same-sex couples. This meant that terms such as "marriage" and "spouse" under federal law only applied to heterosexual couples. As a result, same-sex couples were denied certain protections and privileges, including:
- Over 1,000 federal protections and privileges, such as access to a spouse's employment benefits
- Recognition of the marriage itself
- Rights of inheritance
- Joint tax returns and exemptions
- The right to cohabit together in college or military housing
- Health benefits
In February 2004, President George W. Bush called for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage nationwide, as he found DOMA to be vulnerable to attack under the Full Faith and Credit Clause. Bush stated that the only way to ensure DOMA would not be struck down by "activist courts" was through a constitutional amendment. This amendment would "protect marriage while leaving state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage."
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DOMA was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed in 1996 by President Clinton. DOMA was not, in itself, a ban on same-sex marriages, nor did it force any state to ban them. Instead, it was an effort to protect the institution of marriage and limit it to opposite-sex couples.
DOMA was subject to numerous lawsuits and repeal efforts after its passage. In 2011, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would no longer defend the constitutionality of Section 3 of DOMA, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman only. This section also specifically denied federal benefits to spouses of same-sex marriages.
On June 6, 2012, Judge Barbara Jones ruled that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional, and ordered a tax refund to be paid to a same-sex spouse, Edie Windsor, whose inheritance from her deceased spouse had been subject to federal taxation as if she were unmarried. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this ruling on October 18, 2012, stating that homosexuals had suffered a history of discrimination and were therefore a quasi-suspect class that deserves any law restricting its rights to be subjected to intermediate scrutiny.
On December 7, 2012, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court ruled Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional, declaring it "a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment". The Court held that the Constitution prevented the federal government from treating state-sanctioned heterosexual marriages differently from state-sanctioned same-sex marriages. This ruling meant that the federal government had to recognize same-sex marriages conducted by the states.
In 2015, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court overturned DOMA outright, concluding that the right to marry is a fundamental constitutional right that applies with equal force to same-sex couples. This ruling required all states to perform and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples.
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DOMA was repealed by Congress
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. DOMA barred the federal government from treating same-sex couples who were married under state law as married. This meant that same-sex couples were denied federal recognition for purposes of Social Security benefits, tax benefits, and more.
In 2004, President George W. Bush endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples. He did so because he found DOMA to be vulnerable, stating that:
> After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization. Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.
However, by 2006, the marriage amendment had stalled in Congress. It had not reached the necessary majority in the House or the Senate.
On September 15, 2009, three Democratic members of Congress introduced legislation to repeal DOMA called the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill had 91 original co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and was supported by Clinton, Barr, and several legislators who voted for DOMA. However, it was not until 2022 that the Respect for Marriage Act was reintroduced to Congress and signed into law by President Joseph Biden on December 13, 2022.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, in 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The act was designed to prevent the Full Faith and Credit Clause from being applied to states that prohibited same-sex marriages.
DOMA represented an effort to protect the institution of marriage and limit it to opposite-sex couples. It defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman only and denied federal benefits to spouses of same-sex marriages.
DOMA had significant effects on families, denying them marital benefits in areas such as military and social security benefits, tax categories, hospital visitation rights, and healthcare benefits. It also allowed the federal government to ignore same-sex marriages celebrated in any American state or abroad.
The legal challenge to DOMA centred around the violation of equal protection principles guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court held that DOMA ran afoul of these principles, and in 2013, ruled it unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court's ruling had major implications for same-sex couples, who gained access to marital benefits previously denied. It also meant that binational couples could sponsor foreign-born spouses for U.S. residency, and military families living in states with marriage equality became eligible for federal benefits.
