In a case being watched closely by lawyers in Connecticut because of similarities to a recent decision here, a divided federal appeals court in Manhattan this morning became the second in the nation to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.

In Windsor v. United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a ruling by Southern District Judge Barbara Jones that the 1996 law that defines marriage as involving a man and a woman was unconstitutional.