10/05/2012 - Myclipp

Reuters General/ - Article, Sex, 11 de Maio de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Civil Rights)
Gay marriage moves closer to Supreme
Court
By David Ingram WASHINGTON | Fri May 11, 2012
7:22pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two big
cases addressing marriage rights for gays and
lesbians are on track to reach the U.S. Supreme
Court as soon as this year, keeping the focus on an
issue President Barack Obama reignited with his
endorsement this week. The cases, originating on
opposite coasts, go to the heart of a question that has
churned for two decades: whether states and the
federal government may refuse to recognize same-sex
marriage.How the high court would rule is impossible
to know. In the court's most recent gay-rights case, the
justices in 2003 struck down state anti-sodomy laws as
an improper intrusion on private activity.Lawyers for
California same-sex couples are urging the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to end its involvement,
which would clear the way for a request for the
Supreme Court to settle the issue.Each day the
government does not recognize the couples "is a day
that can never be returned to them," lawyer Ted Olson
wrote in a court filing in March.Obama got both sides
of the marriage debate fired up on Wednesday when
he said he believes gays and lesbians should be able
to marry. The comments to ABC News completed the
president's self-described evolution on the subject and
thrust the issue into his 2012 re-election campaign.The
California case tests whether the state's same-sex
marriage ban, which voters approved in 2008 after
18,000 same-sex couples had obtained marriage
licenses, violates due-process and equal-protection
rights.After a three-judge panel ruled for gay marriage
in the 9th Circuit in February, backers of the ban asked
that an 11-judge panel rehear the case. Should the
court refuse, the backers are expected to ask the U.S.
Supreme Court to intervene.Brian Brown, president of
the National Organization for Marriage, a group that
opposes same-sex marriage, struck a confident note in
an interview. Lawyers for gays and lesbians, he said,
need to prove that "our entire common law history
going back to England was wrong."The second major
case is from Massachusetts, where gays and lesbians
can legally marry but are ineligible for the federal
benefits of marriage.Seventeen married or widowed
men and women suing for benefits won a 2010 ruling
that is now on appeal. A decision is likely in the next
several months from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
1st Circuit, with the high court a possible next
step.Other cases in earlier stages are challenging laws
that restrict same-sex relationships. A New York widow
is suing over the tax treatment of her late wife's estate.
The two were married in Canada in 2007.Mary
Bonauto, a lawyer for the Massachusetts plaintiffs,
said it was hard to gauge how Obama's support for
same-sex marriage might affect legal proceedings.
"When you have the conversation, then you have the
opportunity to change discriminatory laws," said
Bonauto, director of the civil rights project for the legal
group GLAD.(Reporting by David Ingram; Editing by
Howard Goller and Eric Walsh)
100