Federal judge orders VA to obey Supreme Court ruling on same-sex benefits
The Department of Veterans Affairs can no longer rely on its unique reading of federal law to refuse to provide full benefits to a California veteran in a same-sex marriage, a federal judge declared in a ruling filed late Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall sided with Tracey Cooper-Harris of Pasadena, Calif., a 12-year Army veteran, who sued the VA for denying her full disability benefits because she is married to a woman.
The VA is the defendant in several lawsuits over its assertion that the Supreme Court's decision in June striking down the Defense of Marriage Act didn't apply to it.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki argued in a letter to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a member of the Armed Services Committee, that the federal code regulating veterans benefits still defined a spouse as "a person of the opposite sex." Because that statute hadn't yet specifically been overturned, he wrote, the VA continues to recognize it.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/29/20251949-federal-judge-orders-va-to-obey-supreme-court-ruling-on-same-sex-benefits?lite