Another Federal Judge Rules DOMA Section 3 Unconstitutional

They just keep piling. This one is in NY. Edie Windsor was required to pay estate taxes after the death of her wife, Thea Spyer, which she would not have been owed had their marriage been recognized by the federal government.

Regardless whether a more "searching" form of rational basis scrutiny is required where a classification burdens homosexuals as a class and the states' prerogatives are concerned, at a minimum this court "must insist on knowing the relation between the classification adopted and the object to be attained. The search for the link between classification and objective gives substance to the equal protection analysis. Additionally, as has always been required under the rational basis test, irrespective of the context, the court must consider whether the government's asserted interests are legitimate. Pursuant to those established principles, and mindful of the Supreme Court's jurisprudential cues, the court finds that DOMA's section 3 does not pass constitutional muster.

Metro Weekly has the whole story.