In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark June 26, 2013 decision in United States v. Windsor1 striking down §3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), many questions have arisen for employers, human resources professionals, attorneys and others regarding the impact of the decision on the administration of numerous workplace policies and benefits.
Section 3 of DOMA defined “marriage” under federal law as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and defined “spouse” as a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife. Because these definitions impacted the rights and benefits conferred by over 1,000 federal laws by limiting them to married couples in heterosexual unions, the post-Windsor legal landscape is filled with questions about how various statutes will now be interpreted and enforced.
