Yesterday, a Federal Court in New York confirmed what we've heard confirmed repeatedly this year: The Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. The New York court became the fifth federal court to rule against DOMA in a dispute over estate tax.

In this case, it was 83-year old Edie Windsor suing the state government for ignoring the marriage she and her partner Thea Spyer got in Canada in 2007. Adding to the grandmotherly-ness of this whole story: the couple had been engaged since 1967. They were considered married by the state of New York up until the point where it came time for the government to collect an estate tax on the property Thea left for Edie after she died, including the apartment they shared. All told, Edie had to pay out over $300,000 in estate taxes that don't normally apply when passing property to a spouse. If the whole story sounds like the plot of a very moving film, you may be pleased to know Thea and Edie where the subject of the documentary: A Very Long Engagement. Because they are adorable.

In DOMA's corner was the House of Representatives' Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (still calling it BLAG), which House Speaker John Boehner vowed would protect the act. James Esseks, director of the ACLU's Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, on the other hand, was feeling the anti-DOMA momentum here. As he said in a statement, "This decision adds to what has become an avalanche of decisions that DOMA can’t survive even the lowest level of scrutiny by the courts."

Anyhow, DOMA is now exactly five times more unconstitutional that it was when it was first passed. Because that's how the constitution works.

[NYCLU]