Friday, October 19, 2012

Death, meet Taxes

Anyone care to explain why some Americans think this is the right way for the government to treat other Americans?

The case today, Windsor v. United States, presented the court with an enormously sympathetic plaintiff in the person of Edith Windsor, a New York widow who, after more than forty years of romantic partnership and eventual marriage to Thea Spyer, was assessed over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in federal estate taxes after the death of her wife merely because the Defense of Marriage Act prevented her from taking advantage of the marital deduction she would be entitled to had she been married to a man.

To read the decision (always a good idea; news on TV just can't explain legal reasoning at all, nor the facts the underlie it), click here.

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