In July 2010, in these pages, Sherri Rase reviewed Susan Muska and Gréta Olafsdóttir’s 2009 documentary film “Edie and Thea, A Very Long Engagement,” concerning the 40+-year relationship of Edith Windsor and Thea Clara Spyer.
After Spyer, who had progressive multiple sclerosis, passed away in 2009, the Internal Revenue Service levied a $363,053 estate tax on Windsor’s inheritance from Spyer, refusing to recognize, under the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bans Federal recognition of same-sex marriage, that they had been legally wed in Canada, and that their marriage was recognized by the State of New York.
Octogenarian Windsor filed suit, in the case Windsor v. United States, and on October 18, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York ruled in her favor, declaring DOMA unconstitutional, and echoing a decision on May 31, by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts, which found that DOMA violates the U.S. Constitution because it arbitrarily and capriciously treats same-sex couples differently from heterosexual ones.
The case could next be heard by the Supreme Court.