Patricia Cain (Santa Clara) presents DOMA and the Internal Revenue Code at UCLA today as part of its Tax Policy and Public Finance Colloquium Series moderated by Kirk J. Stark and Eric M. Zolt.  Here is the Conclusion:

My purpose in this article has to be argue that DOMA is not only unwise tax policy, it is likely unconstitutional. But since it will be practically impossible to make a successful challenge to DOMA in tax litigation, it is up to Congress to remedy the bad policy. Finally, it is necessary but not sufficient to merely repeal DOMA. All same-sex couples in committed relationships, whether state recognized or covered by private contracts, deserve Congressional attention on the tax law front. The situation is complicated by the differences in state law, but Congress has dealt with such differences before in constructing tax policy. The aim of tax policy, after all, is not to privilege one form of family over another, but to define accurately the correct tax base, according to ability to pay, of each individual taxpayer. Legislation cannot define that tax base accurately by ignoring the intimate and committed relationships of all taxpayers.