Back in February, deputy federal public defender Brad Levenson wanted his health insurance benefits extended to his husband of 16 years, Tony Sears. Judge Stephen Reinhardt for the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Levenson's favor.

But as it often the case in life, it wasn't so easy.

Levenson first tried getting his husband, Tony Sears, on his insurance plan three days after they got married in California in July 2008. When Levenson's application was denied, he brought a complaint to the 9th Circuit in its role as employer. In February, Reinhardt ruled in his favor.

But the Office of Personnel Management intervened and ordered Levenson's health insurer to cancel the coverage it already had extended to Sears, the judge said. Levenson went back and asked Reinhardt to order the public defender's office to either arrange separate coverage for Sears or pay him to do it.

The personnel office has been citing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act to defend its actions. Luckily for Levenson, Reinhardt disagrees.

"The denial of federal benefits to same-sex spouses cannot be justified simply by a distaste for or disapproval of same-sex marriage or a desire to deprive same-sex spouses of benefits available to other spouses," Reinhardt wrote.

Reinhardt was a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, California Advisory Committee from 1962 to 1974 and was its Vice Chairman from 1969 to 1974. He was appointed to his current position as a circuit judge by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.