Faculty in the News
In the News
Legalizing Love: The state of same-sex marriage in the Midwest
Publication date: Dec. 8, 2011
Source: The University Daily Kansan
Author: Hannah Wise
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A story in the University Daily Kansan about the legal implications of same-sex marriage, and its effects on one particular couple, featured comments from Stephen McAllister, professor of law.
The University Daily Kansas wrote:
According to Stephen McAllister, the Kansas solicitor general, if one spouse dies, the surviving spouse will receive Social Security benefits. Same-sex couples and people who are living together but not legally married do not receive the same benefits. The same rule applies to federal taxes, landownership and contracts.
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From the beginning of the American legal system, laws were directed toward land-owning men only. Laws then moved to focusing on married and non-married as two different statuses to define individuals, and those two statuses are what most laws are currently based on.
“For most states it was just assumed that we were talking about a traditional marriage and that is how local laws were geared,” McAllister said.
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McAllister said many aspects of the legal system are tied to marriage because same-sex marriage has become openly acceptable only in the last few decades. The American legal system is still using precedents and laws set from the earliest days of the nation.
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Solicitor general McAllister said for same-sex couples in Kansas, the likelihood of the state constitutional ban being lifted is unlikely. Because the state’s voters ratified the amendment in 2005 through a ballot vote, the Kansas Supreme Court now has its hands tied. He said it will take a case being accepted into the U.S. Supreme Court and the opinion finding DOMA to be unconstitutional on a federal level to change the nation’s legal definition of marriage.