HUFFINGTON POST: …In a letter Friday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Attorney General Eric Holder wrote:
The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans. Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.
Section 3 of DOMA and several provisions of Title 38 of the U.S. Code that govern veterans benefits are unconstitutional when applied to same-sex marrie couples, according to Holder.
Title 38 defines “spouse” in the same terms as Section 3 of DOMA: “a person of the opposite sex who is a wife or husband.” Together, they deprive same-sex spouses — both of civilians and military veterans — of federal benefits enjoyed by married heterosexual couples… (more)
