A Groundswell of Support for Lambda Legal's DOMA Challenge

Lambda Legal's challenge to Section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is gaining support leaders and organizations from nearly all walks of life.

Some 132 members of Congress—plus dozens of companies, unions, bar associations, legal scholars and historians—have signed on to friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to find DOMA unconstitutional.

The 13 briefs filed yesterday at the Ninth Circuit bring together hundreds of signatories, including Microsoft, Google, CBS, the Gap, the State of California, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Psychological Association and other health care professional organizations, as well as scores of religious, civic and public interest groups.

Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Shelbi Day says:

Each of these briefs, and the impressive roster of signatories, underscores the myriad ways in which DOMA not only harms loving couples and families, but also impacts businesses and the efficient conduct of state and local government. What these briefs make clear is that DOMA is both discriminatory and burdensome, unjustly stigmatizing one segment of the population while at the same time increasing the cost of doing business. Clearly, it is time to put DOMA out of its—and our—misery.

Lambda Legal represents Karen Golinski, a federal court employee who sought to enroll her spouse, Amy Cunninghis, in the employee health plan. In February, a federal district court ruled for Golinski and found Section 3 of DOMA (which prohibits federal recognition of the marriages of same-sex couples) unconstitutional. Last week, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

Learn more about the case and read the briefs here.