The Department of Veterans Affairs was sued in federal court Monday by LGBT-rights advocates seeking benefits for the same-sex spouses of veterans living in states that do not recognize their marriages.
Lambda Legal and the law firm of Morrison and Foerster filed suit against Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald on behalf of the American Military Partner Association in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit arguing that to deny such benefits is in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Windsor case.
“Having weathered the federal government’s past, longstanding discrimination against them, lesbian and gay veterans and their families find themselves once again deprived of equal rights and earned benefits by the government they served and the nation for which they sacrificed,” the lawsuit states.
One June 26, 2013, the same day the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage for federal purposes as between a man and a woman, President Barack Obama instructed the Justice Department to work with members of his cabinet to ensure the decision was implemented swiftly and broadly across the federal government. In a June 20, 2014 memo to Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the completion of the implementation of the Windsor decision. However, the Obama administration’s legal interpretation of the “place of domicile” rule prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Social Security Administration, from adopting a place of celebration rule for certain programs and forces those agencies to instead confer benefits based on the laws of the state where a married same-sex couple lives. Due to those restrictions, both Holder and the White House renewed their call for Congress to pass legislation that would correct areas of federal law that continue to prevent the extension of benefits.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has argued that the following portion of U.S. Code forces them to look to the state where married same-sex couples currently live:
In determining whether or not a person is or was the spouse of a veteran, their marriage shall be proven as valid for the purposes of all laws administered by the Secretary according to the law of the place where the parties resided at the time of the marriage or the law of the place where the parties resided when the right to benefits accrued.
But according to the lawsuit filed Monday, the adoption of the place of domicile “imports into federal law unconstitutional state definitions of marital status,” many of which have been overturned by federal courts in the year since the Windsor decision. Federal courts have ruled in favor of marriage equality in Utah, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Oregon, Wisconsin, Indiana and Colorado.
“The VA’s incorporation of state definitions of marital status that discriminate against same-sex couples to determine eligibility for federal spousal benefits is arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law,” the lawsuit argues. “It violates the Fifth Amendment, including by impinging on the fundamental right to marry and by denying equal protection on the basis of sexual orientation and sex.”
Moreover, under the VA’s place of domicile rule the same-sex spouses of veterans can be “denied or disadvantaged in obtaining spousal veterans benefits such as disability compensation, death pension benefits, home loan guarantees, and rights to burial together in national cemeteries.”
Susan Sommer, director of Constitutional Litigation at Lambda Legal, said in a statement, “Married veterans and their spouses, wherever they live, need critical veterans benefits, earned through years of often perilous service, to take care of their families.”
“It is simply unacceptable to see AMPA’s members not only discriminated against in their home states where their marriages are disrespected but also turned down by the federal government for basic veterans benefits for their spouses,” added Stephen Peters, a Marine veteran and president of the American Military Partner Association. “Our members will be denied pension and survivors benefits, home loan guarantees, and other earned veterans benefits.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs declined to comment on pending litigation.
A federal judge refused to overturn judgments totaling $360,104 against former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis stemming from her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning, of the Eastern District of Kentucky, rejected a request from Davis's lawyers to set aside a jury verdict awarding $100,000 to David Ermold and David Moore, one of several couples -- both gay and straight -- who were denied licenses by Davis, the former clerk of Rowan County.
Lawyers from the right-wing, anti-LGBTQ legal firm Liberty Counsel, which is representing Davis, argued that Ermold and Moore had not provided sufficient evidence, including testimony from medical or mental health experts, of how Davis's refusal to issue them a marriage license had caused them "emotional distress."
Thailand is one step closer to legalizing marriage equality after lawmakers in the country's lower house of parliament voted to approve a bill permitting same-sex couples to wed.
The bill overwhelmingly passed by a vote of 400-10 in its final reading on March 27.
It now heads to the country's Senate, where it must be approved, before finally having Thailand's king sign off on the policy change. The law could be enacted as soon as 120 days after the king's assent, reports Al Jazeera.
If the bill surmounts those obstacles, Thailand would become the third Asian country to legalize same-sex nuptials, following Taiwan and Nepal.
The United Methodist Church has repealed its 40-year-old ban on LGBTQ clergy after delegates voted to scuttle the rule prohibiting "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as ministers.
Delegates at the church's General Conference, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, voted 692-51, without debate, to repeal the restriction.
The overwhelming vote margin contrasts significantly with past General Conferences -- including the most recent one, five years ago -- which had left the ban intact, along with penalties for churches that perform or recognize same-sex marriages.
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