The Obama administration is officially backing same-sex marriage in the courts, as it has officially submitted an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief to the Proposition 8 Supreme Court case, a decision that was made by President Obama.
It’s extremely rare for a president to get personally involved in Supreme Court appeals, and sources tell CNN that he spent a good deal of time reading up on the issue and articulating his views privately. This move is no doubt short of monumental.
The administration joins more than 200 businesses and 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, in filing amicus briefs backing gay marriage in the two cases, Prop 8 and DOMA, that are being brought to the high court.
When Obama first made note of his support last May, he stated that it should be left up to the states, not the court, to decide. But with the pending Supreme Court cases just months away, the president hinted in his inaugural address that the decision might have to be made above the states. “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he stated.
The brief was filed just before the deadline, which was at the end of the day on Thursday. The Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on Prop 8 on March 26 and on DOMA the following day.
