DOJ: Same-Sex Marriage Ban ‘Crystallizes’ Stigma Against Gay People and Violates Constitution
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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court on Friday urging the justices to rule that bans on same-sex marriages violate the constitution.
In the department’s 46-page filing, it says that “the United States has a strong interest in the eradication of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.” Further, “the refusal of…states to recognize current or prospective marriages has prevented petititoners from realizing the wide range of tangible and intangible benefits that marriage provides.”
Arguing that bans on same-sex marriage “inhibit their ability to raise children in a recognized two-parent family” and “deny lesbian and gay couples many other advantages under state law,” the DOJ insists it hopes to see the Supreme Court take its side in one of this summer’s most highly-anticipated cases.
The DOJ concludes that a ban on same-sex marriages “crystallizes in an acutely painful way the stigma that lesbian and gay adolescents experience as they come to understand that an essential attribute of their being marks them for second-class status.” Such a ban, the department concludes, violates the Equal Protection Clause.
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