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20131776 Club

Kennedy writes for a 5-4 court: DOMA's federal marriage ban violates the Constitution

Edith Windsor, who owed $363,053 in estate taxes a heterosexual widow would not have paid, wins; federal benefits open at once to legally married same-sex couples.

Edith Windsor had been with Thea Spyer for forty-two years when Spyer died in 2009 — and because the federal government didn't recognize their 2007 Toronto marriage, Windsor owed $363,053 in estate taxes a heterosexual widow would not have paid. On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Windsor's favor, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act violated the Fifth Amendment's equal protection guarantee. Federal benefits — joint tax filing, Social Security survivor payments, military and immigration benefits — became immediately available to legally married same-sex couples nationwide…

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More from June 26
1945

50 nations sign the United Nations Charter in San Francisco

China signs first, as the nation that bore Axis aggression longest; delegates from all 50 Allied powers file through the Herbst Theatre to add their names.
1948

Clay orders supply flights into Tempelhof; the question now is whether the air can feed two million

Stalin sealed every land route into West Berlin days ago, betting the Allies would negotiate their way out rather than try to sustain a city from the sky.
2015

Supreme Court rules 5-4: every state must license and recognize same-sex marriage

Kennedy's majority finds the Fourteenth Amendment settles the question; the ruling consolidates six cases from four states and reaches all 50 states and U.S. territories.
17401776 Club
Spanish regulars, free black militia, and Seminole warriors hit the 170-man British garrison two hours before it stirred, wrecking Oglethorpe's drive on St. Augustine.
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Read the full June 26 edition →Everything that happened on June 26 →
More from Modern America
2001

Apple shows a white box the size of a deck of cards: 1,000 songs in your pocket

Steve Jobs introduces a 6.5-ounce music player built around a 5 GB hard drive hidden inside a Cupertino auditorium.
2007

Discovery lifts off with Pamela Melroy in command, only the second woman to lead a shuttle crew

The mission carries a new station module and a piece of ice too small, NASA says, to worry about.
2000

Shepherd, Krikalev and Gidzenko dock at the space station and float inside

Their Soyuz reaches the aft port of the Zvezda module at 09:21 UTC; ninety minutes later the hatch opens on a station that has never had a resident crew.
1997

Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the World Trade Center bombing

After a Manhattan trial that opened August 3 and called more than 100 witnesses, the planner of the 1993 van bomb is convicted.
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