Same-sex rights set to expand

Holder airs policy for justice system

“The Justice Department’s role in confronting discrimination must be as aggressive today as it was in Robert Kennedy’s time,” Attorney General Eric Holder said Saturday in announcing a policy on samesex marriage rights.
“The Justice Department’s role in confronting discrimination must be as aggressive today as it was in Robert Kennedy’s time,” Attorney General Eric Holder said Saturday in announcing a policy on samesex marriage rights.

WASHINGTON - In an assertion of same-sex marriage rights, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is applying a landmark Supreme Court ruling to the Justice Department, announcing Saturday that same-sex spouses cannot be compelled to testify against each other, should be eligible to file for bankruptcy jointly, and are entitled to the same rights and privileges as federal prison inmates in opposite-sex marriages.

The Justice Department runs a number of benefits programs, and Holder says same-sex couples will qualify for them. They include the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and benefits to surviving spouses of public-safety officers who suffer catastrophic or fatal injuries in the line of duty.

“In every courthouse, in every proceeding and in every place where a member of the Department of Justice stands on behalf of the United States, they will strive to ensure that same-sex marriages receive the same privileges, protections and rights as opposite-sex marriages under federal law,” Holder said in prepared remarks to the Human Rights Campaign in New York. The advocacy group works on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights.

Just as in the civil-rights struggles of the 1960s, the stakes in this generation over same-sex marriage rights “could not be higher,” said Holder.

“The Justice Department’s role in confronting discrimination must be as aggressive today as it was in Robert Kennedy’s time,” Holder said of the attorney general who helped lead the advancement of civil rights.

On Monday, the Justice Department will issue a policy memorandum to its employees instructing them to give lawful same-sex marriages full and equal recognition, to the greatest extent possible under the law.

Holder’s address is the latest application of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a provision in the Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The decision applies to legally married same-sex couples seeking federal benefits.

After the Supreme Court decision last June, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service said that all legally married gay couples may file joint federal tax returns, even if they reside in states that do not recognize same-sex marriages. The Defense Department said it would grant military spousal benefits to same-sex couples.

The Health and Human Services Department said the Defense of Marriage Act is no longer a bar to states recognizing same-sex marriages under state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said it is now able to extend benefits to legally married same-sex spouses of federal employees and annuitants.

On Saturday, Holder told his audience:

The Justice Department will recognize that same-sex spouses of individuals involved in civil and criminal cases should have the same legal rights as all other married couples, including the right to decline to give testimony that might violate the marital privilege. Under this policy, even in states where same-sex marriages are not recognized, the federal government will not use state views as a basis to object to someone in a same-sex marriage from invoking this right.

The U.S. Trustee Program will take the position that same-sex married couples should be eligible to file for bankruptcy jointly and that domestic support obligations should include debts such as alimony owed to a former same-sex spouse.

Federal prisoners in same sex marriages will be entitled to visitation by a spouse, inmate furloughs during a crisis involving a spouse, escorted trips to attend a spouse’s funeral, correspondence with a spouse and compassionate release or reduction in sentence based on an inmate’s spouse being incapacitated.

Gay-rights advocates welcomed the changes but had hoped Holder would use his address before the Human Rights Campaign to announce that the president would sign an order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

“That would be big,” said Gary Buseck, legal director for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.

Ian Thompson, who works on homosexual issues for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, added: “These issues are very much at the center of this administration’s civil-rights legacy.”

“This landmark announcement will change the lives of countless committed gay and lesbian couples for the better,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “While the immediate effect of these policy decisions is that all married gay couples will be treated equally under the law, the long-term effects are more profound. Today, our nation moves closer toward its ideals of equality and fairness for all.”

In January, Holder intervened in the legal battle over gay marriage in Utah and announced that the more than 1,300 same-sex marriages that took place there in December and January are considered legal under federal law, even though a step by the Supreme Court cast doubt on the marriages and state officials said they would not recognize those unions.

Opponents of same-sex marriage accused Holder of overstepping his authority in that case. Buseck, meanwhile, said the Obama administration could do more, such as the executive order on discrimination, to leave a civil-rights legacy.

The Justice Department has already approved policy changes by other federal agencies to extend federal benefits to same-sex married couples.

Last summer, the Office of Personnel Management announced that federal employees in same-sex marriages could apply for health, dental, life, long-term care and retirement benefits. The Health and Human Services Department said that legally married same-sex senior citizens on Medicare would be eligible for equal benefits and joint placement in nursing homes around the country.

The Social Security Administration will pay death benefits to survivors of a same-sex marriage. The Department of Homeland Security will treat same-sex spouses equally for the purposes of obtaining a green card if the spouse is a foreign national.

In terms of the Justice Department, the new policy will have “important, real-world implications for same-sex married couples that interact with the criminal justice system,” Holder said.

Information for this article was contributed by Pete Yost of The Associated Press, by Sari Horwitz of The Washington Post and by Matt Apuzzo of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/09/2014

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