HRC Blog

Three labor groups filed an amicus brief this week asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court’s ruling that DOMA is unconstitutional.

The AFL-CIO and Change to Win, the nation’s two largest labor groups, were joined by the National Education Association in filing the brief.

“The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), by intention and design, ensures that workers with same-sex spouses earn less money, are taxed more on their wages and benefits, and have available to them fewer valuable benefits and less economic security than their counterparts with different-sex spouses,” the groups say in the brief.

The groups send a powerful message that DOMA has wide-reaching negative effects on LGBT families.

HRC also joined an amicus brief in the case, and helped to recruit major companies to participate in a separate brief.

In the case, which was brought by Lambda Legal on behalf of Karen Golinski, a federal employee denied health and other benefits for her same-sex spouse, George W. Bush appointee Judge Jeffrey White concluded that DOMA discriminates against same-sex couples “without substantial justification or rational basis.”

Also this week, more than 130 members of the House of Representatives filed a brief in the case, which is expected to be heard in September.

Learn more about the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act.