The nationwide legal battle for marriage equality that saw its first victory in Massachusetts may soon end in the U.S. Supreme Court. Plaintiff couples in four Midwestern and Southern states filed briefs that could strike down bans on same-sex marriages across the country.
According to a Feb. 27 report in The Washington Blade:
“In each of the briefs, attorneys for couples challenging marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee make the case that justices should strike down laws not only in those states on the basis they violate the Fourteenth Amendment, but issue a nationwide decision striking down all remaining state prohibitions on gay nuptials.
“The Supreme Court agreed in January to review the challenges to marriage bans after the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed lower court decisions and upheld the laws as constitutional. The Michigan and Kentucky cases seek the right to same-sex marriage; the Ohio and Tennessee cases are limited to state recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriage.”
Turning to the Michigan couple seeking to overturn same-sex marriage bans nationwide, the Blade reported:
“In a 65-page filing, attorneys for lesbian couple April DeBoer and Jayne Rowze in Michigan say overturning the bans would be a milestone in the civil rights movement. The couple is represented by private attorneys, including Nessel and Kessel Law, and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.
‘Neither the rights and responsibilities of the partners in a marriage, nor the furtherance of any legitimate purposes of marriage, is dependent on the gender of the partners,’ the brief says. ‘As the experiences of those states which have already embraced marriage equality demonstrate, ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from the freedom to marry no more changes the nature of marriage than Loving did, and it no more changes the nature of marriage than women’s suffrage changed voting or the end of segregation at lunch counters changed eating in public.’ ”
According to a press release issued by the firm Evolotus PR, which is covering the proceedings closely:
“DeBoer and Rowse are hospital nurses and the parents of four children they have adopted, two with special needs, two of whom were fostered first. They originally challenged Michigan’s adoption code so that they could adopt their children jointly and provide them the security of having two legal parents. They later amended their lawsuit to challenge the state’s marriage ban since it keeps April and Jayne, as well as the children, from being legally recognized as a family and from the protections other families enjoy.”
