Hi there, This week had two days of arguments on gay marriage at the Supreme Court. The first case dealt with a challenge to the California law known as Prop. 8, which overturned the California Supreme Court’s allowance of gay marriage. The second case was of more interest to us here in Massachusetts as it dealt with… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: DOMA
Applying for Social Security Survivor’s Benefits During the DOMA Appeal
Posted in Court Decisions, Gay Marriage, Same Sex MarriageHi there, The Supreme Court announces today whether or not they are going to take up a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act in a case arising out of Social Security benefits. As promised, here is a different point of view to last week’s post. This one is authored by my partner Lisa Cukier, one… Continue Reading
Defense of Marriage Act and Social Security
Posted in Court Decisions, Same Sex MarriageHi there, An important date in the DOMA battle is coming up soon. On November 30, the Supreme Court will announce whether it will be taking up the matter in its next term. In light of that, there is considerable discussion of what gay and lesbian married couples should do to maximize their rights should DOMA… Continue Reading
Rough day for those with triskaidekaphobia!
Posted in Divorce Lawyer's ChoiceHi there, Maybe because of the date or just maybe the moon is full, but the Internet was awash with crazy stories this week that were tied (at least tangentially) to divorce. First, yet another celebrity behaving badly and another sycophant behaving worse. What surprised me about this was the involvement of the divorce attorney… Continue Reading
A Fascinating Challenge to DOMA
Posted in Gay MarriageHi there, Coming up this Thursday is the oral argument before the Federal Court in the GLAD challenge to the Federal Defense of Marriage Act. I am someone who is strongly (fervently) in favor of gay marriage. Single sex adoption has been around for a long time and I had thought that the successful challenge for gay marriage… Continue Reading
5 Simple Tax Tips About Divorce
Posted in ArticlesHi There, Happy New Year! Tax season for 2009 has now begun. Here are 5 simple tax tips about divorce: 1. Child support is not taxable to the recipient, or to put it more bluntly, she who pays her ex child support also pays the taxes on it. 2. Alimony is taxable to the recipient, so he… Continue Reading
Divorce and Taxes
Posted in ArticlesHi there! Divorce and taxes aren’t quite as inevitable as “death and taxes,” but with one out of three marriages ending in divorce it is close. One of the blogs I subscribe to is called taxgirl and I just read a very good article there on divorce and taxes. One thing to remember if you are part… Continue Reading
Lawsuit Against the Federal Defense of Marriage Act
Posted in Gay MarriageHi there, Since we learned yesterday that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is filing a law suit against the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), speculations have been flying about what this means and what will happen. The lawsuit questions the constitutionality of Section 3 of the law, which defines the word "marriage" as "a… Continue Reading
Maine Passes Gay Marriage Law
Posted in Alimony, Gay MarriageHi there, It is exciting to see the New England states recognizing the fairness of allowing gay folks to marry. It is a huge step and where people can marry they also inevitably will pay taxes and some of them will later divorce. In these areas much inequity still remains. The Defense of Marriage Act… Continue Reading