In what may be the most high-profile "friend of the court" brief filed for marriage equality, the City of New York, including Mayor Mike Bloomberg and lesbian City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, came out against the Defense of Marriage Act and asked the Supreme Court to review the law's constitutionality.
From The Washington Blade:
[The brief asks] the justices to take up lesbian Edith Windsor's challenge to DOMA, known as Windsor v. United States.
Windsor, a New York City widow, had to pay nearly $363,000 in federal estates taxes upon the death of her spouse, Thea Spyer, in 2009 because of Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
The 14-page brief calls DOMA “the last remaining obstacle to achieving legal equality between the city's married couples” while making the case to strike down the anti-gay law.
"Solely because of DOMA, Edith Windsor was required to pay more than $363,000 in federal estate tax on her legal spouse's estate," the brief states. …
"As a result of DOMA, thousands of legally married same-sex couples in the New York City are being subjected to this type of disparate treatment because their legal marriages are not recognized under federal law."
The briefing's filing comes one day after marriage equality generated about $260 million in revenue for New York over the last year.
