THE US Supreme Court is tackling same-sex unions for a second day, hearing arguments for and against the 1996 US law defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
After the nine justices mulled arguments on a California law outlawing gay marriage on Tuesday, they took up a challenge to the constitutionality of the federal Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The 1996 law prevents couples who have tied the knot in nine states - where same-sex marriage is legal - from enjoying the same federal rights as heterosexual couples.
The plaintiff is Edie Windsor, 83, who was ordered to pay federal inheritance taxes of $US363,000 ($A347,750) following the 2009 death of Thea Spyer, her partner of more than 40 years. The couple had married in Canada in 2007.
The surviving half of a heterosexual couple would not have faced the same tax demand. Windsor is challenging Section 3 of DOMA on the grounds it is discriminatory because it defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Up to 800 people gathered outside the court on Wednesday, with a majority shouting slogans and carrying placards in support of marriage equality. On the opposing side, a poster read: "God hates gay marriage."
President Barack Obama's administration had opposed Windsor's bid to repeal Section 3 as it progressed through the lower courts, where the legislation was twice ruled as unconstitutional.
But the White House has since switched sides. Now it is calling for the law to be overturned, leaving DOMA to be defended by a group of Republican mPs, along with a coalition of religious and conservative groups.
"The case is pretty simple. It's about discrimination," said James Esseks, one of Windsor's lawyers.
"It doesn't make sense in America for a federal government to treat two different people, married under the same state law, different ways. That is unfair, it is un-American and it should be unconstitutional."
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