States, Businesses, and Families All Urge Supreme Court to Speedily Affirm Freedom to Marry, Citing the Harms and Unfairness of Delay
Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)–September 4, 2014. Today, laying out the urgency of bringing an end to tangible harms and national disparities, states, businesses and family groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the Supreme Court urging the justices to grant review now in one or more of the cases that have reached the Court and promptly bring the country to national resolution. Although the signatories represent different constituencies and interests, they agree that the continuing injury and indignity inflicted on families by the deprivation of the constitutional guarantees of the freedom to marry and equal protection must end nationwide.
Technically, the amici briefs were filed in support of the petitions for review by states whose bans were struck, but none of the briefs support the state bans of Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia. All of the Amici agree that the time has come for the Court to resolve this question without further delay and affirm the freedom to marry nationwide.
The amici briefs are from (1) 15 states, which have either affirmed the freedom to marry or refused to defend existing bans; (2) organizations advocating for couples and families who experience real harm every day because of the denial of the freedom to marry and the refusal to treat all marriages equally under the law; and (3) 30 American businesses, including 16 in the Fortune 250, which are forced by marriage bans to discriminate in defiance of their policies of inclusion and equal opportunity and which must maintain complicated, costly and confusing personnel policies to accommodate the patchwork of discrimination.
One of the three briefs was filed today by Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel on behalf of Freedom to Marry; Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); Family Equality Council; Equality Federation; and COLAGE, the only national organization for people who have LGBT parents. The brief recounts harrowing stories from families and couples who have suffered because they either are denied the freedom to marry or their lawful marriages are not respected by discriminating states. The brief can be found here.
For example, Shana Carignan and Megan Parker of North Carolina who married legally in Massachusetts, but whose marriage is denied respect in their home state, face an untenable situation as parents. They are unable to seek the care they need for their six-year-old son, J.C., who suffers from cerebral palsy, because North Carolina’s marriage ban bars Shana from being treated as J.C.’s adoptive parent and therefore makes him ineligible to receive premium care under Shana’s insurance policy. As the brief notes, “Every day J.C. is missing opportunities that could help his physical and intellectual development because the law prevents him from benefiting from his mother’s medical insurance.”
“Today America’s businesses and families, diverse states and loving couples, have come before the Supreme Court to make clear that every day until the Court acts is a day of injustice, indignity, and injury that harms real people and disserves our nation, and that it is time to end marriage discrimination in the United States,” said Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry. “On top of the irrefutable momentum in public opinion and the revealing consensus of 39 state and federal courts, the stark and needless harms that delay inflicts underscore the urgency of the Supreme Court’s bringing our country to national resolution. Americans should not have to fight couple by couple, case by case, state by state, year by year to secure the freedom to marry and equal protection under the law that our Constitution promises to all of us.”
Over the past 14 months since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Windsor, there have been 23 federal court decisions across 16 states that have held unconstitutional the denial of the freedom to marry and discriminatory refusal to treat lawfully married couples as married. By contrast, only one federal trial judge has upheld marriage discrimination, in a case yesterday in Louisiana. In the past year, 39 state and federal courts have affirmed the freedom to marry, with only one state trial court – in a divorce action out of Tennessee — going the other way. The momentum in the courts is matched by the momentum in public opinion, with clear and growing national majority — 59% — supporting the freedom to marry and majorities in every region of the country.
In the amicus brief written by the Massachusetts Attorney General and joined by 14 other states, the states argue that “marriage equality has only benefitted families, communities and states.” The brief notes that while as many as 200,000 same-sex couples may have legally married across the country, none has full security in the protections and obligations of marriage if they reside in or travel to the other 31 states which still discriminate. This, the brief argues, “harms millions of Americans – same-sex couples and their children and extended families every day.” The brief can be found here.
The brief concludes: “…the Amici States can attest that marriage equality has only invigorated the institution. After more than 10 years of marriage equality, we understand its implications: more couples who love each other are free to marry; more children are able to enjoy the benefits and protections that attend their parents’ marital relationship; more families enjoy the privileged status and security conferred by civil marriage; and more communities benefit from the stability marriage facilitates…It is time for marriage equality nationwide.”
In the brief written by the law firm Bingham McCutchen, 30 companies including such household names as General Electric, Pfizer, Oracle, Nike, Alcoa, Staples, Target and Amazon, argue that the current, piecemeal landscape is unfair to their employees and adds additional bureaucratic burdens that inhibit their ability to conduct business and attract and retain the best and brightest employees. The brief can be found here.
In urging the Court to grant review, the corporations say that having a single, national rule treating marriages of same-sex couples like any other marriages “…reduces uncertainty and risk, removes significant administrative burdens, improves employee morale and productivity, and encourages economic growth and innovation.” The brief goes on to note that in today’s mobile economy, the already complicated reality of determining the scope and manner of benefits available to employees and their children is exacerbated by employees who live, work and file taxes in multiple jurisdictions, an increasingly common phenomenon.
Noting that in 2014, 91% of Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination policies for their LGBT employees and 67% offer benefits to same-sex partners, the Amici contend that differing state laws “alternately celebrating and condemning same-sex marriage conscript us, as the administrators of state benefits, to become the face of a law that demands we treat our employees in committed same-sex relationships” differently from one state to another, regardless of the company’s stated policies. As a result, the brief concludes, the current patchwork of state laws “hinders our ability to run our businesses efficiently and effectively, and to make our businesses as diverse and inclusive as possible, despite our stated policies and our recognized business case. In abiding by inharmonious and discriminatory state laws, we become complicit in our employees’ injury – and our own.”
Freedom to Marry is the campaign to win marriage nationwide. We are pursuing our Roadmap to Victory by working to win the freedom to marry in more states, grow the national majority for marriage, and end federal marriage discrimination. We partner with individuals and organizations across the country to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage and the protections, responsibilities, and commitment that marriage brings.
Source: http://www.freedomtomarry.org
