Saturday, March 7, 2015

Dept of Justice to US Supreme Court: Gay marriage bans against constitution

The Obama administration has weighed in on the side of marriage equality in a brief filed Friday with US Supreme Court.
The court is set to hear four cases next month challenging marriage bans in four different US states. Their ruling is expected decide the issue for the nation where same-sex marriage is currently legal in 37 states plus the District of Columbia.
The brief describes LGBT people as 'a long-mistreated class of human beings' and states that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. 'The laws they challenge exclude a long-mistreated class of human beings from a legal and social status of tremendous import,' the Amicus brief states. 'Those laws are not adequately justified by any of the advanced rationales. They are accordingly incompatible with the Constitution.'
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli also wrote in the brief: 'These facially discriminatory laws impose concrete harms on same-sex couples and send the inescapable message that same-sex couples and their children are second-class families, unworthy of the recognition and benefits that opposite-sex couples take for granted.'

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