MERCURY NEWS: The Obama administration on Friday called for the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the federal government’s 1996 ban on same-sex marriage benefits unconstitutional, saying “gay and lesbian people have been subject to a significant history of discrimination in this country.”
U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli’s legal brief urges the court to uphold a federal appeals court ruling that found the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. The administration’s position was not unexpected because it has already expressed its legal position in challenges to DOMA, including in a case involving a San Francisco couple…
“The law 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,” the solicitor general wrote… (more)
