Vermont Joins DOMA Fight

Vermont's attorney general said Friday that the state will join Connecticut and New York in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. He says that DOMA discriminates against same-sex couples and deprives them of the federal benefits given to straight couples. Vermont, New York and Connecticut (all states where gay marriage is legal) have all filed a brief in a case where a woman paid $350,000 in estate taxes when her same-sex partner died.