A recently enacted federal law serves as a reminder to employers to ensure their workplace policies and procedures, including those relating to employee benefits, should not discriminate on account of an employee’s marital status, including same-sex and interracial marriages. Specifically, on 13 December 2022, President Biden signed into law the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act (Act)1 that codifies and guarantees marriage rights and related federal protections to interracial and same-sex couples. The Act, introduced earlier this year in response to Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion the United States Supreme Court’s (Supreme Court) ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization2 that overturned Roe v. Wade,3 codifies the definition of marriage—for purposes of federal law—as between two individuals that is valid under the state law where the marriage occurred. The legislation comes almost a decade after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that rendered discrimination of same-sex couples for purposes of determining federal benefits and protections unconstitutional.4 Moreover, the Act also repeals the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA),5 which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and permitted states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Although DOMA was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, it had not yet been formally repealed.
The Act also prohibits states from denying full faith and credit...
The woman who accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 years old has fully recanted her allegations, and apologised for the “immense pain” she caused the rapper and his family, including wife B...