Religion & Law

I haven't found the opinions yet, but two judges of the Ninth Circuit, Reinhardt and Kozinski, in separate rulings have included same-sex marriages within persons entitled to federal spousal benefits under the employee-benefits program for public defenders that (as I understand) each circuit administers.  Judge Kozinski construed the statutory language to include same-sex spouses so as to avoid a significant constitutional question under Lawrence v. Texas, while Judge Reinhardt went further and held that the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage for federal benefits violates equal protection (as opposed to, I assume, the parts of DOMA that shield states from having to accept same-sex marriages performed in other states).  Arthur Leonard of New York Law School has a description here.  These are not regular panel opinions, just single-judge internal-grievance rulings, but they will still get a lot of attention.