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Matthew D. LaBrie
million to date), the cemeteries must “be operated solely for the internment of veterans, their spouses, [and] children,” which, per Section 3 of DoMA, prevents the internment of a spouse of the same sex as their veteran deceased (Commonwealth Memorandum, 2009 10-11). Coakley charged that as Massachusetts does not recognize a legal difference between homosexual and heterosexual marriage, DoMA unconstitutionally forces the Commonwealth to either violate its own Constitution “by refusing burial of the same-sex spouses of Massachusetts” or accept the applications for internment and unfairly risk federal sanctions for non-compliance for not enforcing federally required discrimination (Commonwealth Compl. 2009, 21). The second of the cases in which Coakley charged DoMA unconstitutionally intruded upon Massachusetts’s sovereignty as a state involves Medicaid funding. The federal government currently reimburses the Commonwealth for approximately one-half of its Medicaid expenditures ($5.3 billion in 2008). In order to receive this funding Massachusetts must comply with federal regulations set forth by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. One of these regulations is that funds are not provided to “individuals whose income or resources exceed certain limits” (Commonwealth Memorandum, 2009, 14). Under federal assessment policy, the combined income of federally recognized married couples (a man and a woman) is assessed to determine whether the two qualify for Medicare benefits. Section 3 of DoMA prevents Massachusetts from assessing homosexual couples jointly and thus, Coakley charged, incurs a great and involuntary cost to the state. As many more individuals are eligible for Medicare funding when assessed separately, the Commonwealth must pay an average of $2.4 million extra annually. Furthermore, “because the United States Constitution compels [Massachusetts] to treat similarly all individuals” validly married under Massachusetts law, the Commonwealth must provide all benefits a federally recognized spouse would receive from the federal government to all homosexual spouses, incurring even more costs to the state.6 Coakley contended that by impairing the ability of a state to structure and run its internal operations, federal law forces the Commonwealth to discriminate against those married to a person of the same sex, again creating a further unconstitutional dilemma. The third and final instance in which Coakley charged that Section 3 of DoMA has unconstitutionally invaded the sovereignty of the Commonwealth involves state taxes that depend on marital status owed to the federal government. The Commonwealth is required to pay Medicare a tax of 1.45% of each of its employee’s taxable income. Federal law states that the value of health 6
In 2008, Massachusetts passed the “MassHealth Equality Act” to ensure that no legally married couple would be denied the equivalent of federal Medicaid funds due to the sex of their spouse.