Multiple Groups File Friend-Of-Court Briefs In Support Of DOMA Overturn

Via press release from the NYCLU:

More than fifteen parties – including New York City, three states, members of Congress, civil rights and religious organizations ––plan to file briefs today in support of Edith “Edie” Windsor’s constitutional challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

In June, a federal district judge in New York ruled in Windsor’s favor that section three of DOMA does “not pass constitutional muster.” Today’s briefs were filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which will hear arguments in the case on September 27, 2012.

“The number and scope of the parties supporting Edie’s case illustrate the breadth of the harms that DOMA inflicts on married same-sex couples,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. “It is time for the courts to bring an end to this discriminatory law once and for all.” Some of the groups filing briefs in support of Windsor include:

Local governments including the city of New York; and the states of New York, Connecticut and Vermont; The Partnership for New York City, a group of CEOs from New York City’s leading businesses; 145 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, spearheaded by House Judiciary Members Jerrold Nadler and John Conyers, Jr., along with Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, David N. Cicilline and Democratic Leaders Nancy Pelosi, Steny H. Hoyer and James E. Clyburn; The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Bar associations and civil rights, religious, cultural and LGBT organizations; Social workers and national mental health and medical organizations; Labor unions; and professors of U.S. history, family law, and family and child welfare law.

Fantastic!