NEW YORK – Today, the Minnesota Senate voted 37-30 to pass a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry in that state, and Governor Mark Dayton will sign the bill into law tomorrow afternoon. The Minnesota House passed the bill on May 9. Minnesota becomes the twelfth state, plus the District of Columbia, to permit gay and lesbian couples to marry. The following statement may be attributed to Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman regarding the passage of marriage equality in Minnesota:
“After today's vote, Minnesota will become the twelfth state in the union, and the third in the span of a month, to allow gay and lesbian couples to legally marry. This remarkable series of victories in a matter of weeks is one more sign that the ground has shifted in our country in favor of equal justice under law for gay and lesbian Americans. In the wake of these legislative advances, it is time for the Supreme Court to overturn the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act. As my office has argued in the Supreme Court, DOMA undermines the efforts of states like New York, and now Minnesota, to provide equal rights and protection under the law for same-sex couples.”
A.G. Schneiderman led a coalition of 15 states and the District of Columbia in filing a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which refuses to recognize for all federal purposes same-sex marriages valid under state law. A copy of the Attorney General’s amicus brief filed in the case of United States v. Windsor can be read here.
In a separate case affecting the marriage rights of same sex couples, Hollingsworth v. Perry, Attorney General Schneiderman joined a friend-of-the-court brief filed by Massachusetts, and joined by 12 other States, urging the Supreme Court to hold that California’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. For more information on the two friend-of-the-court briefs in United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry, click here.
A.G. Schneiderman also successfully defended New York’s marriage equality law from legal challenge in New York State’s highest court. On October 23, 2012, the New York State Court of Appeals sided with A.G. Schneiderman’s office in a rejecting a challenge to the Marriage Equality Act.