NOTE: This bulletin is tailored for government retirement
systems and government plan administrators. There are
significant differences in the impact of the Supreme Court's
holding in Obergefell on plans covered by the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act (ERISA). If you have an ERISA-covered
plan, please see our bulletin for private sector plans
here.
Background
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its monumental
decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, finding that
same-sex couples have the legal right to marry in all U.S.
jurisdictions and that states must recognize same-sex marriages
performed in other states. As a result of
Obergefell, all governmental plan administrators must
recognize same-sex spouses. Because the Supreme Court
partially based Obergefell on the U.S. Constitution's
Equal Protection Clause, it appears that governmental employers and
plans can no longer make distinctions between opposite-sex and
same-sex married
