Constitutional Law

Valentines from the New York Times and NYCLU

By Sam Ritchie, ACLU

New York is celebrating Valentine's Day by pushing for the right to marry for same-sex couples. Just a few weeks after a fantastic piece outlining the struggle for marriage rights – and quoting the ACLU LGBT Project's very own James Esseks – the New York Times today published an editorial in support of our challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, Windsor v. United States:

Two new lawsuits, filed in Connecticut and New York, challenging the Defense of Marriage Act now offer the president a chance to put the government on the side of justice. We urge him to seize it when the administration files its response, which is due by March 11…

[T]here are two crucial questions here. The overarching one, of course, is whether it is constitutional for the federal government to deny benefits to some people who are legally married under their state's laws. Much also depends on the standard of review. How should courts evaluate claims that a law discriminates against gay people?

On the merits, this should be an easy call… By now, such blatant discrimination should be presumed to be unconstitutional, and the Justice Department should finally say so. If conservatives in Congress want to enter the case to argue otherwise, so be it.

We couldn't agree more! And while we fight in the courts for federal recognition of the marriages of same-sex couples, the New York Civil Liberties Union is encouraging New Yorkers to send Valentines in support of marriage equality to their state Senators. They've even written a Valentie's Day poem in support of all New York families (and created a nifty little graphic to boot)! An excerpt:

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on February 14, 2011 (boomark / email).