The debate over same-sex marriage rages in America months after the Supreme Court's landmark rulings last June (2013) in United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry, while the Court's decision in Windsor struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), in Hollingsworth v. Perry, marriage equality was restored in California on procedural grounds, overturning the lower courts' ruling, which struck down Proposition 8. On February 13, 2014, a federal judge in Virginia overturned states' bans on same-sex marriage, declaring a constitutional equal protection violation. While in Indiana, on the same day, that state's Senate held a second reading of the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and in Oklahoma, a federal judge ruled that a limited law to heterosexual couples violated the United States Constitution. Did the Supreme Court justices correctly interpret the equal protection clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments in their decision to declare section three of DOMA unconstitutional? The death of DOMA In the case of United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court struck down section three of DOMA. This means that same-sex couples will now receive federal benefits like other legally married couples. When Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, the issue of same-sex marriage intensified. The controversy began in the early 1990s. Lawsuits cropped up across the country, brought by advocates who challenged the validity of same-sex marriage bans on constitutional grounds. According to Joanna L. Grossman (2013), "the heat came from Hawaii, which was on the verge of legalizing same-sex marriage due to a ruling by the state's highest court in 1993 that the ban deserved strict scrutiny. article......retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/12-307#qpLiptak, A. (2013). Having and upholding the Supreme Court and the battle for same-sex marriage. New York, NY: The New York Times/Byliner Original. procedural law legal definition of procedural law. Procedural law synonyms by the free online legal dictionary. (nd). Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/procedural+lawUnited States v. Windsor (2013). Bloomberg Law - Document - United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675, 186 L. Ed. 2d 808, 118 FEP Cases 1417, 57 EBC 1577 (2013), court opinion. Retrieved from http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/United_States_v_Windsor_No_12307_2013_BL_168683_US_June_26_2013_C/1Washington v. Glucksberg | The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. (1997). Retrieved from http://www.oyez.org/cases/1990-1999/1996/1996_96_110