SAN FRANCISCO: The Barack Obama administration is putting its weight behind overturning the ban on same-sex marriage in California, urging the Supreme Court to vote for marriage equality. His administration urged the Supreme Court to rule that voters in California were not entitled to ban same-sex marriage there. The Obama Administration asked the Supreme Court to acknowledge DOMA as unconstitutional last Friday. This makes President Obama the first president in history to have a brief filed in support of gay marriage and presented in front of a Supreme Court. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was signed back in 1996. The law bans gay marriage and excludes LGBT spouses from some rights that heterosexual couples have, including federal benefits. DOMA “denies to tens of thousands of same-sex couples who are legally married under state law an array of important federal benefits that are available to legally married opposite-sex couples,” US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said in the brief written to the Supreme Court. Read the full article from 429Magazine on last Friday's amicus brief.
