Central Iowans React to U.S. Supreme Court DOMA Ruling

Central Iowans are reacting to the news this morning in which the United States Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act in a 5-4 vote.

"The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. “By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”

This means that because of the ruling legally married gay men and women are entitled to claim the same federal benefits that are available to opposite-sex married couples, Reuters reported.

DOMA, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, prevents same-sex couples whose marriages are recognized by their home state from receiving the hundreds of benefits available to other married couples under federal law, according to the Huffington Post.