The Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted in 1996, stated that, for the purposes of federal law, the words “marriage” and “spouse” referred to legal unions between one man and one woman. The Defense of Marriage Act was intended to define and protect the institution of marriage. This law allowed individual states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages that were performed and recognized under other states’ laws.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held in United States v. Windsor (570 U.S. 744, 133 S. Ct. 2675, 186 L. Ed. 2d 808 (2013)) that its provisions were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also held that states have the authority to define marital relationships and that the Defense of Marriage Act went against legislative and historical precedent by undermining that authority. The result was that the Defense of Marriage Act denied same-sex couples the rights that come from federal recognition of marriage, which are available to other couples with legal marriages under state law.