Windsor, involved a same-sex couple from New York: Edith Windsor and Thea Clara Spyer.
FORBES: Justices Scrutinize DOMA's Treatment Of Same-Sex Marriage
So for purposes of New York law, Spyer and Windsor were considered married.
FORBES: Challenges To Same Sex Marriages Now At Supreme Court
This fact hit Windsor hard in 2009, while in a hospital after suffering a heart attack a month after Spyer's death.
United States, Edith Windsor was denied the marital deduction for estate taxes paid after the death of her spouse, Thea Spyer.
Here are the facts in Windsor: Edith Windsor, a resident of New York, married Thea Spyer, her partner of 40 years, in Canada.
FORBES: Challenges To Same Sex Marriages Now At Supreme Court
Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 in Canada after doctors told them that Spyer would not live much longer.
When Spyer died in 2009, Windsor had to pay estate taxes on the inheritance she received from Spyer because DOMA did not recognize their marriage.
FORBES: Justices Scrutinize DOMA's Treatment Of Same-Sex Marriage
Why, she and her lawyers argued, should her relationship with Spyer be any different when it came to rights, taxes and more than a heterosexual couple?
That is expected to happen when the Supreme Court will weigh the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act through the prism of Windsor and Spyer's story.
Even with those cases pending, Windsor said last fall -- when the lower court decided in her favor, three years after Spyer's death -- that she felt she could finally breathe and celebrate.
Ms. Windsor, donning a diamond brooch that Ms. Spyer gave her instead of an engagement ring, told the crowd after making her plea to the Supreme Court that she was "thrilled and exalted and humbled" to attend the arguments.
WSJ: Widow Edith Windsor Gets Her Day in Court as Justices Weigh Gay Marriage
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