According to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Government Accountability Office (GAO), there are 1,138 statutory provisions in which

marital status Civil status, or marital status, are the distinct options that describe a person's relationship with a significant other. ''Married'', '' single'', ''divorced'', and ''widowed'' are examples of civil status. ''Civil status'' and ''marital stat ...

is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges. These rights were a key issue in the debate over federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Under the 1996

Defense of Marriage Act The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marr ...

(DOMA), the federal government was prohibited from recognizing same-sex couples who were lawfully married under the laws of their state. The conflict between this definition and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution led the U.S. Supreme Court to rule DOMA unconstitutional on June 26, 2013, in the case of ''

United States v. Windsor ''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage. The Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal recognition o ...

''. DOMA was finally repealed and replaced by the

Respect for Marriage Act The Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA; ) is a landmark United States federal law passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. It repeals the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), requires the U.S. federal gover ...

on December 13, 2022, which retains the same statutory provisions as DOMA and extends them to interracial and same-sex married couples. Prior to the enactment of DOMA, the GAO identified 1,049 federal statutory provisions in which benefits, rights, and privileges are contingent on marital status or in which marital status is a factor. An update was published in 2004 by the GAO covering the period between September 21, 1996 (when DOMA was signed into law), and December 31, 2003. The update identified 120 new statutory provisions involving marital status, and 31 statutory provisions involving marital status repealed or amended in such a way as to eliminate marital status as a factor. The first legally-recognized same-sex marriage occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1971. On June 26, 2015, in the case of '' Obergefell v. Hodges'', the Supreme Court overturned '' Baker v. Nelson'' and ruled that marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed to all citizens, and thus legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Rights and benefits

* Right to benefits while married: ** Employment assistance and transitional services for spouses of members being separated from military service; continued commissary privileges ** Per diem payment to spouse for federal civil service employees when relocating **

Indian Health Service The Indian Health Service (IHS) is an operating division (OPDIV) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). IHS is responsible for providing direct medical and public health services to members of federally-recognized Nativ ...

care for spouses of Native Americans (in some circumstances) ** Sponsor husband/wife for immigration benefits * Larger benefits under some programs if married, including: ** Veteran's disability ** Supplemental Security Income ** Disability payments for federal employees **

Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and per ...

Property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inhe ...

exemption for homes of totally disabled veterans **

Income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

deductions, credits, rates exemption, and estimates ** Wages of an employee working for one's spouse are exempt from federal unemployment tax * Joint and family-related rights: ** Joint filing of bankruptcy permitted ** Joint parenting rights, such as access to children's school records ** Family visitation rights for the spouse and non-biological children, such as to visit a spouse in a hospital or prison ** Next-of-kin status for emergency medical decisions or filing wrongful death claims ** Custodial rights to children, shared property, child support, and alimony after divorce ** Domestic violence intervention ** Access to "family only" services, such as reduced rate memberships to clubs & organizations or residency in certain neighborhoods * Preferential hiring for spouses of veterans in government jobs * Tax-free transfer of property between spouses (including on death) and exemption from "due-on-sale" clauses. * Special consideration to spouses of citizens and

resident alien In law, an alien is any person (including an organization) who is not a citizen or a national of a specific country, although definitions and terminology differ to some degree depending upon the continent or region. More generally, however, ...

s * Threats against spouses of various federal employees is a federal crime * Right to continue living on land purchased from spouse by National Park Service when easement granted to spouse * Court notice of probate proceedings * Domestic violence protection orders * Existing homestead lease continuation of rights * Regulation of condominium sales to owner-occupants exemption * Funeral and

bereavement Grief is the response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or some living thing that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, grief also has physical, cogniti ...

leave * Joint adoption and

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family ...

* Joint filing of taxes (see filing status) *

Insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

licenses, coverage, eligibility, and benefits organization of mutual benefits society * Legal status with stepchildren * Making spousal

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

decisions * Spousal non-resident tuition differential waiver * Permission to make funeral arrangements for a deceased spouse, including burial or

cremation Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre is ...

* Right of survivorship of custodial trust * Right to change surname upon marriage * Right to enter into

prenuptial agreement A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement (commonly referred to as a prenup), is a written contract entered into by a couple prior to marriage or a civil union that enables them to select and control many of the leg ...

* Right to

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...

of property * Spousal privilege in court cases (the marital confidences privilege and the spousal testimonial privilege) * For those divorced or widowed, the right to many of ex- or late spouse's benefits, including: **

Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

pension ** Veteran's pensions, indemnity compensation for service-connected deaths, medical care, and nursing home care, right to burial in

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that h ...

s' cemeteries, educational assistance, and housing ** survivor benefits for federal employees ** Survivor benefits for spouses of longshoremen, harbor workers, railroad workers ** Additional benefits to spouses of coal miners who die of

black lung disease Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), also known as black lung disease or black lung, is an occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term exposure to coal dust. It is common in coal miners and others who work with coal. It is similar to ...

** $100,000 to spouse of any public safety officer killed in the line of duty ** Continuation of employer-sponsored health benefits ** Renewal and termination rights to spouse's copyrights on death of spouse ** Continued

water rights Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentiou ...

of spouse in some circumstances ** Payment of

wage A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', '' prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remune ...

s and workers compensation benefits after worker death ** Making, revoking, and objecting to post-mortem anatomical gifts

Responsibilities

* Spousal income and assets are counted in determining need in many forms of government assistance, including: ** Veteran's medical and home care benefits ** Housing assistance ** Housing loans for veterans ** Child's education loans ** Educational loan repayment schedule ** Agricultural price supports and loans ** Eligibility for federal matching campaign funds * Ineligible for National

Affordable Housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...

program if spouse ever purchased a home: * Subject to conflict-of-interest rules for many government and government-related jobs * Ineligible to receive various survivor benefits upon remarriage * Providing financial support for raising children born of the marriage

Ambiguous

There are some laws that either benefit or penalize married couples over single people, depending upon their own circumstances: * Marriage penalty/bonus * Changing beneficiaries in a retirement plan or waiving the joint and survivor annuity form of retirement benefit requires written spousal consent * Wages can be garnished at a maximum of 60% (instead of the normal 25% limit) if the garnishing is for

alimony Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide financial sup ...

child support Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...

States

In addition, community-property states frequently have forms of ownership that allow a full basis step-up on one's own share of community property on the death of a spouse (in addition to the normal step-up on spouse's assets).

Legal remedies enacted following the GAO report

Following the 2004 GAO report at least one bill, the Uniting American Families Act, has been proposed to attempt to remedy some of the differences in rights between same-sex partnerships and marriages.

References

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