March, 06 2015, 10:45am EDT
Mayors for the Freedom to Marry Submits Amicus Brief on Marriage to Supreme Court
WASHINGTON
Three years after its launch in 2012, Mayors for the Freedom to Marry today signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to end marriage discrimination nationwide. The brief includes 226 individually named mayors as well as 40 cities across the country, from towns as small as Thompson, North Dakota, to the five largest cities in the nation, as well as the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, and the International Municipal Lawyers Association.
"We launched Mayors for the Freedom to Marry three years ago because mayors are closest to their constituents and communities and singularly able to make the case that marriage makes for stronger families and a more vibrant economy," said Marc Solomon, national campaign director of Freedom to Marry. "We're very proud of the 700 mayors who have been a part of Mayors for the Freedom to Marry over the three years of this campaign. This brief demonstrates the diversity of leaders across the country who know that America is ready for the freedom to marry and want the Supreme Court to bring our country to national resolution."
Since its launch, Mayors for the Freedom to Marry has partnered with the United States Conference of Mayors to build and grow support.
"It is time for marriage equality to be the law of the land," said U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran. "It's the right thing to do and that's why the U.S. Conference of Mayors has joined this brief. Our organization adopted policy opposing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in 1984. In 2009 we adopted policy in support of the freedom to marry, and last June reaffirmed that policy and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the freedom to marry is the right of all Americans."
The brief was authored by the City Attorney's Office of Los Angeles and will be filed at the Supreme Court today. It states: "Municipalities, as the level of government most closely connected to the community they serve, bear a great burden when a target sector of their populace is denied the right to marry. ... When the freedom to marry is denied, municipalities are the first level of government to suffer the impact."
The brief can be found here: freedomtomarry.org/supremecourtbriefs
Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Headed by Evan Wolfson, one of America's leading civil rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry brings new resources and a renewed context of urgency and opportunity to this social justice movement.
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