QUEER QUOTE: Federal Government Urges Supreme Court To Strike Down All State Bans On Marriage Equality

The federal government headed by President Barack Obama and represented in court by the Justice Department headed by Attorney General Eric Holder has filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court urging an end to all state bans on marriage equality throughout the nation. This following excerpt is today's Queer Quote:

“The marriage bans challenged in these cases impermissibly exclude lesbian and gay couples from the rights, responsibilities, and status of civil marriage. These facially discriminatory laws impose concrete harms on same-sex couples and send the inescapable message that same-sex couples and their children are second-class families, unworthy of the recognition and benefits that opposite-sex couples take for granted. The bans cannot be reconciled with the fundamental constitutional guarantee of ‘equal protection of the laws.’”

This is a significant development because it was not that long ago the federal government was defending it's own federal ban on the recognition of marriage equality in court, a position the government abandoned almost exactly four years ago, and a few years later the Supreme Court struck down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

It is expected that the federal government may ask for time to argue it's position in the recently announced oral arguments in the marriage equality cases to be heard by the court on April 28.