Edie Windsor, right, and her late wife Thea Spyer. (Photo via ACLU)
BY ZACK FORD
ThinkProgress
Edie Windsor and her lawyers have filed their final brief urging the Supreme Court to declare the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. When Windsor’s wife died, she was forced to pay $363,053 in federal estate taxes because their marriage was not recognized under DOMA. In the brief, Windsor’s lawyers point out that House Republicans have invented new explanations for why they originally passed DOMA, but the original record shows that their goal was to discriminate against people who are gay, lesbian and bisexual.
The brief states, “The legislative history is replete with language of panic and fear, as well as stereotypical thinking about the purported dangers of gay people or their relationships. […] The very language of its title indicates that DOMA was enacted to defend or ‘guard against’ people who appear to be different.”
Read more at ThinkProgress.org
