Gay widower's lawsuit challenges Social Security benefit rules for same-sex couples
A lawsuit filed in Tucson asserts that same-sex couples shouldn't be held to Social Security's nine-month marriage requirement for receiving spousal survivor benefits if they were legally prevented from marrying during that period.
Gay-rights group Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit Tuesday against the Social Security Administration on behalf of 65-year-old Michael Ely, a gay Tucson resident who is seeking spousal survivor’s benefits based on his 43-year relationship with the man he eventually married.
James "Spider" Taylor died six months after the couple married — and three months shy of satisfying the Social Security requirement. The couple married three weeks after Arizona's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down by a federal court in October 2014.
Ely's lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Arizona argues that a nine-month marriage requirement for survivor’s benefits is unconstitutional in states where same-sex couples were not able to marry because of discriminatory laws.
Read more: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/11/21/gay-widower-sues-change-social-security-survivor-benefit-rules-same-sex-couples-tucson-michael-ely/2069663002/