U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White in an opinion released Tuesday ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriage, violates the U.S. Constitution.

The case, known as Golinski v. United States, involves Karen Golinski, a federal court employee who under DOMA has been denied spousal health coverage for her wife.

In the opinion Judge White writes: “the Court finds that DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution by, without substantial justification or rational basis, refusing to recognize her lawful marriage to prevent provision of health insurance coverage to her spouse.”

Crucially, White used the medium level of judicial review, heightened scrutiny, in assessing DOMA. This is something the Obama administration, in arguing on behalf of Golinki, had urged. However, the Court also noted DOMA has failed to meet even the lowest form of scrutiny in other cases:

The Court concludes that, based on the justifications proffered by Congress for its passage of DOMA, the statute fails to satisfy heightened scrutiny and is unconstitutional as applied to Ms. Golinski.

Although the Court finds that DOMA is subject to and fails to satisfy heightened scrutiny, it notes that numerous courts have found that the statute fails even rational basis review.

White affirms that the legal team acting to defend DOMA on behalf of Congress failed to show a justifiable reason for DOMA’s discrimination, though White declined to go as far as to say that DOMA was solely motivated by animus, referencing instead a previous court opinion and suggesting insensitivity behind the prejudice rather than a direct malice.

Judge White concludes by saying:

In this matter, the Court finds that DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution by, without substantial justification or rational basis, refusing to recognize her lawful marriage to prevent provision of health insurance coverage to her spouse.

Accordingly, the Court issues a permanent injunction enjoining defendants, and those acting at their direction or on their behalf, from interfering with the enrollment of Ms. Golinski’s wife in her family health benefits plan.

Lambda Legal, who represented Golinski in this case, is keen to highlight the significance of Judge White’s opinion.

“This ruling, the first to come after the Justice Department announced it would no longer defend this discriminatory statute in court, spells doom for DOMA,” said Tara Borelli, staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s Western Regional Office in Los Angeles. “The Court recognized the clear fact that a law that denies one class of individuals the rights and benefits available to all others because of their sexual orientation violates the constitutional guarantee of equality embodied in the Fifth Amendment. The Court agreed with us that sexual orientation discrimination by the government should receive heightened scrutiny under the constitution. It then concluded that DOMA could not meet that standard, and that there was not even a rational justification to deny Karen Golinski the same spousal health care benefits that her heterosexual co-workers receive.”

Judge White’s ruling marks a significant step in what has been a long legal battle. Golinksi, an employee of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for over 20 years, wanted to enroll her wife Amy Cunninghis in the government’s employee health plan – a standard practice for heterosexual spouses – but was denied that right per DOMA’s restrictions. She decided to sue for that right.

Golinski’s case has since seen two separate orders by Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinsk saying that Golinski should be allowed to enroll Cunninghis in the health plan, but these orders were ignored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management who cited DOMA to justify this denial. An amended complaint directly challenging DOMA was filed in April 2011 by Lambda Legal. Judge White heard arguments on this amended complaint on December 16.

Said Golinski of Judge White’s ruling: “I am profoundly grateful for the thought and consideration that Judge White gave to my case. His decision acknowledges that DOMA violates the Constitution and that my marriage to Amy is equal to those marriages of my heterosexual colleagues. This decision is a huge step toward equality.”

The legal team defending DOMA on behalf of the U.S. House is expected to appeal.

To read Judge White’s ruling, please click here for the Lambda Legal case resource page.

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