Friday round-up
on Aug 30, 2013 at 8:13 am
Briefly:
- Relying on United States v. Windsor, in which the Court struck down a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage – for purposes of over a thousand federal laws and programs – as a union between a man and a woman, a federal district court in California yesterday held that a federal law regulating veterans’ benefits, which defined a spouse as “a person of the opposite sex,” is unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by an Army veteran who alleged that the Department of Veterans Affairs violated her constitutional rights when it refused to give her full disability benefits because she is married to another woman, rather than a man. M. Alex Johnson reports for NBC News.
- At Bloomberg Businessweek, Brad Stone reports on the cert. petition filed yesterday by Amazon, which is asking the Court to review its challenge to a New York law that requires online retailers to collect sales tax.
- The township of Mount Holly, New Jersey, has filed its opening brief on the merits in Mount Holly v. Mount Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, in which the Court will consider whether disparate impact claims are available under the Fair Housing Act. Rose Krebs reports for the Burlington County (N.J.) Times. (h/t: How Appealing)
