House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has led a coalition of at least 130 congressional members in filing a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act.
The filing is in Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, a case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the Justice Department wants fast-tracked to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Oral arguments currently are set for Sept. 10 and likely will take place because the Supreme Court is on summer break and won’t rule on the Justice Department request before the fall.
The department has declined to defend DOMA, the 1996 law prohibiting the federal government from recognizing gay marriages. So the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has intervened and hired attorneys to defend the law.
House Democrats, meanwhile, have signed on to the amicus brief opposing DOMA.
The brief, according to a statement from Pelosi’s office, “makes it clear that the House is not united on DOMA’s validity, that the BLAG (Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group) lawyers do not speak for the entire institution and that there is no legitimate federal interest in denying married same-sex couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that federal law provides to couples who are married under state law.”
The signers include:
Nancy Pelosi
Steny Hoyer
James E. Clyburn
Jerrold Nadler
John Conyers Jr.
Barney Frank
Tammy Baldwin
Jared Polis
David N. Cicilline
Gary L. Ackerman
Robert E. Andrews
Karen Bass
Xavier Becerra
Shelley Berkley
Howard L. Berman
Timothy H. Bishop
Earl Blumenauer
Suzanne Bonamici
Robert A. Brady
Bruce L. Braley
Lois Capps
Michael E. Capuano
André Carson
Judy Chu
Hansen Clarke
Yvette D. Clarke
Wm. Lacy Clay
Emanuel Cleaver
Steve Cohen
Gerald E. Connolly
Joe Courtney
Joseph Crowley
Danny K. Davis
Susan A. Davis
Diana DeGette
Rosa L. DeLauro
Theodore E. Deutch
Lloyd Doggett
Michael F. Doyle
Donna F. Edwards
Keith Ellison
Eliot L. Engel
Anna G. Eshoo
Sam Farr
Chaka Fattah
Bob Filner
Marcia L. Fudge
John Garamendi
Charles A. Gonzalez
Raúl M. Grijalva
Luis V. Gutierrez
Janice Hahn
Colleen W. Hanabusa
Alcee L. Hastings
Martin Heinrich
Brian Higgins
James A. Himes
Maurice D. Hinchey
Mazie K. Hirono
Kathy Hochul
Rush D. Holt
Michael M. Honda
Steve Israel
Jesse L. Jackson Jr.
Sheila Jackson Lee
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr.
William R. Keating
Dennis J. Kucinich
John B. Larson
Barbara Lee
Sander M. Levin
John Lewis
Zoe Lofgren
Nita M. Lowey
Carolyn B. Maloney
Edward J. Markey
Doris O. Matsui
Carolyn McCarthy
Betty McCollum
Jim McDermott
James P. McGovern
Jerry McNerney
Gregory W. Meeks
Brad Miller
George Miller
Gwen Moore
James P. Moran
Christopher S. Murphy
Grace F. Napolitano
Richard E. Neal
Eleanor Holmes Norton
John W. Olver
William L. Owens
Frank Pallone Jr.
Ed Pastor
Gary C. Peters
Chellie Pingree
David E. Price
Mike Quigley
Charles B. Rangel
Laura Richardson
Steven R. Rothman
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Bobby L. Rush
Tim Ryan
Linda T. Sánchez
Loretta Sanchez
John P. Sarbanes
Janice D. Schakowsky
Adam B. Schiff
Robert C. “Bobby” Scott
José E. Serrano
Brad Sherman
Louise McIntosh Slaughter
Adam Smith
Jackie Speier
Fortney Pete Stark
Mike Thompson
John F. Tierney
Paul Tonko
Edolphus Towns
Niki Tsongas
Chris Van Hollen
Nydia M. Velázquez
Timothy J. Walz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Maxine Waters
Henry A. Waxman
Peter Welch
Lynn C. Woolsey
John A. Yarmuth
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