Windsor v. United States

Case #: 12-307
Date Filed: 11 September 2012
Ruling Date: 26 June 2013

Description:

• Edith Windsor filed a lawsuit against the United States government challenging the governments assertion that she pay $363,053 in taxes on the estate left to her by her late wife Thea Spyer – taxes not required of heterosexual couples. The case ended up before the United States Supreme Court, which found in her favor (5-4 decision) and ruled that the federal definition of marriage as only between a man and women was unconstitutional, thereby striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Hernandez v. Robles; Shields v. Madigan; Samuels v. New York State Department of Health (Consolidated)

Case #: 855 N.E.2d 1
Date Filed: March 2004
Ruling Date: 4 February 2005

Description:

• Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in New York challenging the denial of marriage licenses as a violation of the New York Constitution. After initially winning at the trial court level, the state Court of Appeals reversed that decision and upheld the state’s ban on same-sex marriage (2006).

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom v. New York

Case #: 19 N.Y.3d 814 (2012)
Date Filed: 25 July 2011
Ruling Date: 23 October 2012

Description:

• The Court of Appeals declined to hear a challenge to the state’s Marriage Equality Act, thereby upholding the legislation granting marriage equality to same-sex couples.