DOMA Decision May Affect Civil Unions
The assumption is that the Windsor decision only applies to same-sex couples who are married, not couples who are in civil unions. There is, however, at least a hint that this might not be the case. In 2011, the IRS responded to a letter asking for advice on the filing status of an opposite sex couple that were united in a civil union.
DOMA Unconstitutional – Scalia Unhappy – Let’s Get Practical
DOMA’s principal effect is to identify and make unequal a subset of state-sanctioned marriages. It contrives to deprive some couples married under the laws of their State, but not others, of both rights and responsibilities, creating two contradictory marriage regimes within the same State. It also forces same-sex couples to live as married for the purpose of state law but unmarried for the purpose of federal law, thus diminishing the stability and predictability of basic personal relations the State has found it proper to acknowledge and protect.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.