U.S. recognizes more same-sex marriages
on Oct 26, 2014 at 12:03 pm
Keeping up with the expanding list of states where same-sex marriages are now being performed, Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Saturday that the federal government now officially recognizes such unions in thirty-two states, plus Washington, D.C.
The statement added six new states to the list where gay and lesbian couples now qualify for a wide range of federal marital benefits, including more favorable tax treatment. “We are acting as quickly as possible with agencies throughout the government,” Holder said, “to ensure that same-sex married couples in these states receive the fullest array of benefits allowable under federal law.”
The six states newly added are Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Those are states where federal courts more recently have applied federal appeals court rulings striking down state bans on same-sex marriage or where state officials accepted those rulings as binding.
Holder also announced that official recognition will be given to marriages that were performed in Indiana and Wisconsin, after federal trial judges had nullified those states’ bans but before those case were appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which recently upheld those decisions.
Holder’s recognition list even extends to states where some legal challenges are still going on, such as in Alaska, Idaho, and North Carolina. Even so, same-sex challenges are being performed in those states on the basis of appeals court rulings for regions that include those states. Holder’s action thus indicates that federal officials do not regard the lingering legal challenges as having much chance of succeeding.
There are three states not yet on Holder’s recognition list where existing federal appeals court rulings have gone against state bans, but those have not been fully implemented — South Carolina in the Fourth Circuit, Montana in the Ninth Circuit and Kansas in the Tenth Circuit, although same-sex couples are pressing for new court orders in their favor in each state.
