By Tejinder Singh | SCOTUSblog
At Monday’s oral argument in Hillman v. Maretta, the Justices will consider whether federal law preempts state laws permitting the widow or widower of a deceased federal employee to sue that employee’s former spouse to recover life insurance proceeds. Petitioner Jacqueline Hillman – the widow of deceased federal employee Warren Hillman – argues that it does not; instead, she contends that she is entitled to sue to obtain the proceeds of her husband’s life insurance policy because the state law is at issue simply “regulates domestic relations and family matters” without doing any “major damage to a federal interest.”
Respondent Judy Maretta – Warren’s ex-wife and the designated beneficiary of his life insurance policy – counters that the state law that gives Jacqueline a cause of action against her is a “brazen attempt to circumvent federal law” and “redirect proceeds, dollar for dollar, to the State’s preferred beneficiary.” The United States agrees with her, characterizing the state law as “treat[ing] the named beneficiary as a mere conduit for transferring the insurance proceeds to someone lower down in the federal order of precedence,” creating “an intractable conflict with federal law.”
If you’d like to discuss family law, contact with Kaine Fisher, director of Rose Law Group Family Law Department, kfisher@roselawgroup.com.
