Employment and Labor Law

Contact: Julie A. Reddig; Lerch Early & Brewer (Maryland, USA)

This summer the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Windsor v. United States declared the portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which required federal laws not to recognize state same-sex marriage laws to be unconstitutional. One effect of this decision is that the Family Leave and Medical Act (FMLA) now requires covered employers (50 or more employees) to provide certain eligible employees with FMLA leave when they are taking time off to care for an ill or injured same-sex spouse. This is because the FMLA regulations define “spouse” as “a husband or wife as defined or recognized under state law for purposes of marriage in the State where the employee resides.” Before the Windsor decision, DOMA superseded this definition, thus prohibiting FMLA leave for same-sex spouses.

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