LEGAL REASONING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

LEGAL REASONING - Essay Example The state offers tax exemptions on property left to spouses after the death of their partners (Wood, 2011). However, the state denied her request on realizing that she was married to a person of the same sex. There was a federal law in force in the US, the marriage act that defended marriage, DOMA, which failed to include a same sex partner in its definition of the term ‘spouse’ (Leonard, 2013). She decided to file a suit in court challenging the constitutionality of the federal law provision after agreeing to pay the taxes. Both the US Courts of Appeal and the US District Court delivered a ruling that the provision in the statute law was not constitutional and as such ordered the State of New York to issue a refund for the sum paid by Windsor in taxes for her property (Boies & Olson, 2008). The Supreme Court, in a similar case pitting the Governor of Utah and the Salt Lake City Clerk, in their capacities against Derek Kitchen, Kate Call, Kody Partridge, Moudi Sbeity, Laurie Wood and Karen Archer, did not uphold the decision by the state of Utah to ban marriages by same sex couples in 2004. The plaintiffs complained of abuse of their rights by the state of Utah, since it failed to recognize such marriages and accord them the recognition accorded to marriages between heterosexual partners (Engdahl, 2009). One of the reasons given by the Supreme Court to justify their decision in the appeal was that the provision of that federal law encouraged the curtailment of the right of all American citizens to marry any person of their choice (Leonard, 2013). Further, it would deny this section of the population their right to establish a family as they may will, raise their children as well as enjoy the unconditional protection offered by the laws of the State concerning marriages (Fredericks, 2009). Justice Kennedy posited that the Fourteenth Amendment in the US Constitution protected these rights. It has always been a