The component is not available at this moment. Please contact the site administrator.
In 2015, theU.S. Supreme Court held that the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment guarantee the right of same-sex couples to marry. That ruling gave same-sex couples the right to marry in all states and there is no basis for any state to refuse to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state.1
This decision was preceded by two other cases that expanded same-sex marriage rights. In 2013, the Court ruled that section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 (DOMA), which denied federal recognition of legally-married same-sex couples, was unconstitutional.2
In another case that year, the Supreme Court held that California’s “Proposition 8,” which amended the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, was unconstitutional.3 As a result, same-sex marriages became lawful in California.
These decisions have several implications for the administration and taxation of employee benefits. The definition of “spouse,” as the U.S. Supreme Court noted, appears in a multitude of federal statutes and regulations which impact employers, including:
For information on the impact of these court decisions on the Family and Medical Leave Act, see
Administration of benefits in California is further complicated by the fact that registered domestic partners are also recognized in the state, but may or may not be treated the same as spouses under federal law. For more information, see Registered Domestic Partnership” in
1. Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584 (2015)
2. U.S. v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct. 2675 (2013)
3. Hollingsworth v. Perry, 130 S.Ct. 705 (2013)