President Barack Obama's administration has filed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage nationwide, Bloomberg reports:
The filing Friday sets up the administration to argue alongside gay-rights advocates when the nine justices hear arguments April 28. The court is likely to rule in late June.
The administration's brief completes a shift on the issue for Obama, who ran for president in 2008 as a supporter of civil unions for gay couples, but not marriage.
Even after Obama backed gay marriage publicly in 2012, his administration took a more nuanced view in court. When the Supreme Court considered the issue in 2013, the administration stopped short of urging nationwide legalization, instead taking a position that would have added eight new gay-marriage states.
The Washington Blade adds that 211 congressional Democrats – 167 House members and 44 Senators – have filed a separate friend-of-the-court brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn bans on same-sex marriage.
Major corporations and veteran GOP officials have also lined up behind nationwide marriage equality.
Read the brief below via Equality Case Files:
