Schiff Applauds Obama’s Support of Marriage Equality in Supreme Court Brief

The following is a press release from the office of Rep. Adam Schiff, who represents West Hollywood in Congress.

Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) applauded the Obama Administration after it filed an “amicus curiae” brief to the Supreme Court in the Proposition 8 case.  Additionally, Schiff joined 212 of his Congressional colleagues in filing an amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court in U.S. v. Edith Schlain Windsor, a landmark challenge to Section 3 of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  Section 3 defines marriage for purposes of federal law as “only a legal union between one man and one woman,” excluding same-sex couples from all marriage-based federal responsibilities and rights.

“Last night, the Obama Administration filed in an amicus brief before the Supreme Court urging that Proposition 8 be overturned. The Administration’s position is one that I whole-heartedly agree with, and am proud to support,” said Rep. Schiff. “Marriage equality extends one of our most basic rights of citizenship to all Americans—the right to marry the person you love. By attempting to deny same-sex couples of the right to marry, California’s Proposition 8 has one purpose—to discriminate and marginalize one group of people. We have to challenge these discriminatory laws at all levels, and that’s why I joined my colleagues in filing a friend of the court brief challenging DOMA, as well.”

Schiff has actively fought House Majority efforts—through the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG)—to defend DOMA before the Supreme Court. In the brief filed in the Windsor case, Schiff and other lawmakers argue that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional and should be struck down because there simply is no legitimate federal interest in denying married same-sex couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that federal law provides to all other married couples. As the brief explains: “DOMA imposes a sweeping and unjustifiable federal disability on married same-sex couples.”

In Edith “Edie” Windsor’s case, the federal government taxed Edie more than $363,000 when her spouse, Thea Spyer, passed away in 2009. The couple first met in 1965 and married in 2007, after an engagement that lasted more than 40 years. Yet, when Thea died, the federal government treated them as complete strangers because of DOMA, significantly reducing Edie’s inheritance by denying her protections from the estate tax that other married couples receive. Edie, who is now 83 years old, challenged DOMA as a violation of equal protection. The federal district court in New York City and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor, holding that DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee.

As the Congressional amici point out to the court: “The goal of maximizing the financial well-being and independence of widows is not furthered by depriving Edie Windsor and others like her of the estate-tax exemption that other married Americans receive. The policy of encouraging employers to provide family health benefits is not served either by denying to employers the tax deduction for providing those benefits to married gay and lesbian couples or by refusing to cover spouses of gay and lesbian federal employees. Our national security is undermined by denying spousal benefits to gay and lesbian servicemembers, especially during periods of armed conflict. Our veterans are dishonored when we deny them the right to have their spouses buried alongside them in our national cemeteries.”

Schiff continued, “It’s my belief that marriage equality will soon become the law of the land and I hope that the Court upholds the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, finding that Prop 8 was unconstitutionally discriminatory towards same-sex couples who simply want to exercise their basic human right to marry the person of their choosing. Additionally, the Court should uphold the lower courts’ decision to overturn DOMA on the grounds that it violates our constitutional right to equal protection.”

Schiff is an original co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would require recognition of any marriages performed in any state under federal law.

Click here to read local reaction to the Proposition 8 case before the Supreme Court.