Back in 2009,
attorney Roberta Kaplan agreed to represent Edith Windsor, a former computer
programmer whose wife of 44 years had recently died, and although they had
married legally in Canada, their union was not recognized in the United States,
leaving Windsor owing thousands of dollars in estate taxes as the sole heir to
her late wife’s holdings. When the case
went to court, Roberta’s oral arguments before the justices, led to the
landmark decision in which the Court held that restricting U.S. federal
interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to
heterosexual unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is
unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This decision not only opened the door for
many other victories in the fight for LGBT equality but it directly paved the
way for the Court’s decision in June that confirmed a Constitutional right
to marry for all Americans regardless of sexual orientation or gender
identity. Roberta joins me today in
studio to discuss her new book Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA which
offers an intimate account of that victory for equality. You can also follow Roberta on twitter.
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