Leon Goldfarb's late wife had worked as a secretary for New York City public schools for nearly twenty-five years and paid all of her social security taxes until her death in 1968.

[1] Goldfarb was represented by future Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who at the time was co-founder and general counsel of the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.

[6][7] Similar to her arguments in Frontiero v. Richardson, Ginsburg argued in her brief that a reliance on gender stereotypes which served to devalue women's roles as breadwinners constituted gender-based discrimination in violation of equal protection.

The Court agreed with Ginsburg's arguments, noting that the distinction in the federal requirements "deprive[s] women of protection for their families which men receive as a result of their employment.

For that distinction, too, operates ‘to deprive women of protection for their families which men receive as a result of their employment’: social security taxes were deducted from Hannah Goldfarb's salary during the quarter century she worked as a secretary, yet, in consequence of § 402(f)(1)(D), she also ‘not only failed to receive for her (spouse) the same protection which similarly situated male worker would have received (for his spouse) but she also was deprived of a portion of her own earnings in order to contribute to the fund out of which benefits would be paid to others.’ [1]The Court rejected the government's argument that the Court should focus solely on the distinction drawn between widowers and widows, based on the notion that the statute discriminates not against the covered wage earning female, but rather against her surviving widower, who was burdened with proof of dependency.

Rejecting that the rationale behind the statutory scheme was justifiably based on administrative convenience or based on a 'policy of cushioning the financial impact of spousal loss upon the sex for which that loss imposes a disproportionately heavy burden,' he concurs with the Court's judgment as to the lack of justification for the disparate treatment of genders, but is "persuaded that the relevant discrimination in this case is against surviving male spouses, rather than against deceased female wage earners.

"[1] Because of the likelihood that a widow would be dependent on her husband, and not the other way around, Rehnquist argued that such a justifiably rational basis is permissible under the Fifth Amendment for the purpose of aiding administrative functions.