GOP Leaders Weigh In
Photo: Judy G. Rolfe for HRC
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Administration Stands With Us Against Marriage Discrimination
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n another groundbreaking move, the Obama administration filed a brief at the Supreme Court arguing for the first time on behalf of the U.S. government that a law denying gay and lesbian couples the ability to marry is unconstitutional. A victory in this case, which challenges California's discriminatory Proposition 8, would be a decisive point in this movement toward marriage equality, said HRC President Chad Griffin. “It’s another historic step forward consistent with the great civil rights battles of our nation’s history,” Griffin told The New York Times. Almost 60 years ago, the Justice Department filed an amicus brief in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark school desegregation case. President Obama himself weighed in on the administration’s filing. “[W]hat we’ve done is we’ve put forward a basic principle — which applies to all equal protection cases,” he told reporters. “Whenever a particular group is being discriminated against, the
court asks the question, what’s the rationale for this — and it better be a good reason. And if you don’t have a good reason, we’re going to strike it down.” The Obama administration’s amicus brief, filed February 28th by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, argues that California’s Proposition 8 discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws. The administration also argues, as it has in the challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, that laws that treat gay and lesbian people differently must be held to a higher standard of review. DOMA is at the center of another case being considered by the Supreme Court. In 2011, the administration stopped defending that 1996 law, which denies federal benefits and recognition to same-sex marriages. Lower courts have declared the California ban and DOMA unconstitutional. The high court is slated to consider both cases in late March.
ore than 100 prominent Republicans have signed on to a legal brief urging the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that bars same-sex marriage. The amicus filing comes a month before the high court hears oral arguments on Proposition 8 as well as a case on the Defense of Marriage Act. Among the signers are former presidential Republican candidate (and Utah Gov.) Jon Huntsman, Mitt Romney advisor Beth Myers, former Govs. William Weld and Christie Todd Whitman, and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. Two of the signers are current members of Congress: Reps. Ileana RosLehtinen of Florida and Richard Hanna of New York. Ros-Lehtinen, a longtime supporter of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, was the first Republican in the House to co-sponsor repeal of DOMA — the 1996 law that forbids federal benefits for same-sex unions. (See p. 17.) Meanwhile, House Republican leaders have worked to keep DOMA on the books and have used taxpayer funds to retain a top litigator for their side. But, increasingly, Republicans are coming out against their party’s platform against same-sex marriage. “The party of Lincoln should stand with our best tradition of equality and support full civil marriage for all Americans,” wrote Huntsman in a recent issue of The American Conservative. “This is both the right thing to do and will better allow us to confront the real choice our country is facing: a choice between the Founders’ vision of a limited government that empowers free markets, with a level playing field giving opportunity to all, and a world of crony capitalism and rent-seeking by the most powerful economic interests.”
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WINTER 2013
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