Local radio stations report today that the Social Security Administration will not accept Multnomah County marriage licenses as proof of marriage until a court rules on whether the county could lawfully issue same-sex marriage licenses. The SSA did the same thing when San Francisco issued SSM licenses. This mainly affects people who want to change their names after marrying, straight and gay alike. People married in Multnomah County who want to change their names on Social Security’s records will still be able to do so, but they will have to use some other identification with their new name, such as a driver’s license.
The San Francisco decision was said not to affect people seeking benefits, because (said the explanation) people have to be married for one year before claiming spousal social security benefits. But one year will likely come and go before the question of same-sex marriage in Oregon is definitively decided, and the SSA will then have to decide whether to accept Multnomah County licenses given to straight couples. Let’s look ahead at SSA’s choices, assuming that the supreme court hasn’t yet ruled on whether SSM licenses are lawful.
1. The SSA can deny spousal benefits to anyone married under a Multnomah County license issued on or after March 3, 2004, whether same-sex or mixed-sex, in effect saying that MF couples who were indisputably lawfully married under Oregon law (no one’s arguing that Oregon can’t lawfully issue licenses to MF couples) are not married under federal law.
2. The SSA can grant spousal benefits to MF, MM, and FF couples married under licenses, except that granting benefits to same-sex couples will violate the Clinton Administration’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
3. The SSA can deny spousal benefits to MM and FF couples married under licenses issued on or after March 3, and grant benefits to MF couples married under licenses issued in that period, thus following DOMA. I think this is the most likely result. . . .
However:
It’s likely that some of Oregon’s new same-sex married couples include one partner who has children from a prior marriage. Under Oregon law, those children become stepchildren of the other partner when their parent marries. Social Security provides benefits for stepchildren, under certain circumstances. What’s going to happen when SSA denies a statutory benefit to a child because the child’s stepfather is married to the child’s father and not to the child’s mother?