vt.Buzz: 'Vermont delegation signs onto brief in marriage case before U.S. Supreme Court'

Last Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., plus 39 other U.S. senators and 172 House members filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case – U.S. v. Edith Schlain Windsor – that challenges the constitutionality of the federal marriage law.

Leahy, who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, has since changed his mind and is now one of the sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the federal DOMA.

The brief that Leahy, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. and other filed with the U.S. Supreme Court cites some findings from a hearing the Senate Judiciary Committee held in June 2011, a hearing Leahy called.

Those findings include that the federal law creates a financial hardship for legally married same-sex couples and that it is harmful to children in the families of married, same-sex parents.

“All couples who are lawfully married under state law, including in Vermont, should be entitled to the same federal protections afforded to other married couples,” Leahy said in a statement Friday. Same-sex marriage is legal in nine states.

The case before the court was brought by Edith “Edie” Windsor. A news release about the amicus brief from Leahy’s office describes the case:

“The federal government taxed Edie more than $363,000 when her spouse, Thea Spyer, passed away in 2009. The couple first met in 1965 and married in 2007, after an engagement that lasted more than 40 years. Yet when Thea died, the federal government treated them as complete strangers because of DOMA, significantly reducing Edie’s inheritance by denying her protections from the estate tax that other married couples receive.

“Edie, who is now 83 years old, challenged DOMA as a violation of equal protection. The federal district court in New York City and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor, holding that DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee.”

You can read the amicus brief here.