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''United States v. Windsor'', (Docket No. ), is a landmark civil rights case〔〔〔 in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to heterosexual unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment; Justice Kennedy wrote: "The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity."〔(How The Court Ruled on DOMA and Prop. 8, by Richard Socarides, The New Yorker, June 26, 2013 )〕 Edith Windsor (born 1929) and Thea Spyer (October 8, 1931 - February 5, 2009), a same-sex couple residing in New York, were lawfully married in Ontario, Canada, in 2007. In addition, New York also recognized the marriage beginning in 2008 following a court decision. Spyer died in 2009, leaving her entire estate to Windsor. Windsor sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses. She was barred from doing so by Section 3 of DOMA (codified at ), which provided that the term "spouse" only applied to marriages between a man and woman. The Internal Revenue Service found that the exemption did not apply to same-sex marriages, denied Windsor's claim, and compelled her to pay $363,053 in estate taxes. On November 9, 2010, Windsor filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking a refund because DOMA singled out legally married same-sex couples for "differential treatment compared to other similarly situated couples without justification." On February 23, 2011, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice would not defend the constitutionality of Section 3 in ''Windsor''. On April 18, 2011, Paul Clement, representing the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), intervened to defend the law. On June 6, 2012, Judge Barbara S. Jones ruled that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional under the due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment〔http://nysd.uscourts.gov/cases/show.php?db=special&id=185〕 and ordered the federal government to issue the tax refund, including interest. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a 2–1 decision,〔http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/436f323b-5e40-411a-9026-98fa59ffb645/1/doc/12-2335_complete_opn.pdf〕 affirmed the district court's judgement on October 18, 2012. BLAG petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision, and the Court issued a writ of certiorari in December 2012. On March 27, 2013, the court heard oral arguments. On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5–4 decision declaring Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional "as a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment."〔''United States v. Windsor'', . Retrieved June 26, 2013.〕 On the same day, the court also issued a separate 5–4 decision in ''Hollingsworth v. Perry'' — a case related to California's constitutional amendment initiative barring same-sex marriage. The decision effectively allowed same-sex marriages in that state to resume after the court ruled that the proponents of the initiative lacked Article III standing to appeal in federal court based on its established interpretation of the case or controversy clause. ==Background== Edith "Edie" Windsor (née Schlain) was born in Philadelphia on June 20, 1929, to a Russian Jewish immigrant family of modest means. During her childhood, her father lost both his candy-and-ice-cream store and his house during the Great Depression,〔(Windsor Amended Complaint )〕 and she at times experienced anti-Semitism. After graduating from Temple University, she married Saul Windsor. They divorced less than one year afterward, and she confided in him that she longed to be with women.〔 Edie Windsor soon moved to New York City to pursue a master's degree in mathematics at New York University. She would eventually become one of the first female senior systems programmers at IBM.〔 Thea Clara Spyer was born in Amsterdam on October 8, 1931, to a wealthy Jewish family that soon escaped the Holocaust by fleeing to the United States before the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands.〔〔 Spyer enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College, but was expelled after a campus guard saw her and another woman kissing.〔〔 She received a bachelor's degree from the New School for Social Research, and a master's degree and PhD in clinical psychology from City University of New York and Adelphi University, respectively. In addition to her private psychology practice in Manhattan, Spyer was an accomplished violinist. She met Windsor in 1963 at a West Village restaurant,〔 and the two began dating after they reconnected in the Hamptons during Memorial Day weekend of 1965.〔(Windsor v. U.S./U.S. v. Windsor Timeline ) Robert Crown Law Library Blog〕 Spyer proposed to her in 1967 but presented her with a diamond brooch instead of an engagement ring, fearing that Windsor would be stigmatized at work if her colleagues knew about her relationship. In 2007, the pair, both residents of New York, married in Toronto, Ontario, under the provisions set forth in the Canadian Civil Marriage Act, after 40 years of romantic partnership. Canada's first openly gay judge, Justice Harvey Brownstone, officiated.〔 Windsor had first suggested engagement in 1965. After Spyer's death in 2009, Windsor was required to pay $363,053 in federal estate taxes on her inheritance of her wife's estate. Had federal law recognized the validity of their marriage, Windsor would have qualified for an unlimited spousal deduction and paid no federal estate taxes. In May 2008, New York Governor David Paterson had ordered state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. Some lower-level state courts had made similar rulings, but whether the state's highest court would give such a ruling the force of law, as Windsor's claim for a refund required, remained uncertain and was disputed throughout her lawsuit. Windsor at first asked several gay rights advocacy groups to represent her, but none would take the case. Finally, she was referred to Roberta Kaplan, a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, who later recalled: "When I heard her story, it took me about five seconds, maybe less, to agree to represent her". Kaplan had unsuccessfully represented the plaintiffs in a 2006 case that challenged the inability of same-sex couples to marry under New York law, ''Hernández v. Robles''. Both Kaplan and Windsor were members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States v. Windsor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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