WHAT RULING MEANS IN TENNESSEE

NASHVILLE — The Supreme Court’s ruling on the federal Defense of Marriage Act won’t alter Tennessee’s constitutional ban on same -sex marriage but should mean Tennessee same-sex couples who legally married elsewhere won’t be denied federal benefits and protections afforded married heterosexual, experts said Wednesday.

But legal scholars said the ramifications of the ruling for Tennesseans are more complicated.

The ruling will now prevent discrimination against same -sex married couples in federal benefits, responsibilities and protections afforded other married couples — including Social Security survivor benefits, family and medical leave and benefits for service members’ spouses — but some are tied to where the marriage occurred and others are tied to where the couple resides.

Vanderbilt University Law School professor Suzanna Sherry said that while the ruling “should mean that Tennessee couples won’t be denied federal benefits, the question is complicated: First, it might depend on whether Tennessee decides to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages performed elsewhere … That question might have to be litigated.

“But the other possibility is that the federal government — the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, et cetera — might decide to interpret federal law to make the question whether you’re married depend on where you get married rather than on where you live, and then it wouldn’t matter whether Tennessee recognizes the marriages.”

The nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures agreed the ruling’s impact is complicated in states like Tennessee. Senior counsel Susan Parnas Frederick said the eligibility of same-sex couples married in a state that allows it but living in a state that doesn’t can vary depending on the benefit.