General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What just happened re: DOMA [View all]Ms. Toad
(38,648 posts)but did not decide it today.
The most successful challenge would come from a couple who currently lives in New York (and has federal benefits) and then moves to Ohio (which does not recognize its marriage). The deprivation of rights already granted, merely because of a move from one state to another, is certainly the kind of inequitable burden described in the decision (but limited to couples within the same state who face similar unfair discrepancies).
It would be harder to argue that a state could not choose to grant (or not grant) same gender marriages - the decision was premised on respecting state's rights to do just that. But it is a much harder case to sustain constitutionally when the couple already has federal rights, which moving within the United States randomly rescinds.