A federal court ruled Wednesday that the Social Security Administration must consider claims for survivor’s benefits by same-sex spouses who were unable to be married for at least nine months because of state marriage bans.Even where couples married as soon as bans were lifted between 2004 and 2015 (the U.S.
Supreme Court struck down all remaining bans in the latter year), many were unable to be married for the minimum nine months before one spouse died, and the SSA denied them benefits for not