The court was also asked to consider the merits of a challenge to part of a 2009 Arizona law granting marital benefits only to legally married state employees.

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For federal income tax status, marital status is determined by state law.

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The federal estate tax law includes an unlimited marital exemption.

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The Internal Revenue Service does not determine your marital status: that is determined by state law.

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The law, for example, does not recognize marital rape for anyone over the age of 15.

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Neither this constitution, nor the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidence thereof be conferred upon any union other than a union of a man and a woman.

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Even the existence of court-like institutions, dealing in particular with marital and property issues, caused little fuss as long as everybody involved recognised the absolute primacy of the law of land.

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Kathleen McKenna, a partner in the labor practice at the law firm Proskauer Rose, says that both federal and local statutes forbid interviewers from asking about marital or family status, or about medical conditions.

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