"Calling it unfair as well as financially burdensome, the city of Seattle, seven other U.S. cities and dozens of corporations — including Microsoft and Starbucks — signed a friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday challenging the federal law that limits the definition of marriage to a one-man, one-woman union."
Article continued at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...32_doma11.html
Seattle has joined seven other U.S. cities and dozens of corporate employers in the ongoing constitutional challenge to the federal government's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which limits marriage to a one-man, one-woman union.
The eight cities, and the companies that Tuesday filed the friend-of-the-court brief with them — including Starbucks and Microsoft, are all in states where a same-sex-marriage law exists or, as is the case in Washington state, where such laws are on hold.
They argue in the brief, filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that DOMA forces them as employers to create two separate groups of married employees — gay and straight — whom they are required to treat unequally when providing certain forms of workplace benefits, primarily health care.
At a news conference Tuesday, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes joined Mayor Mike McGinn and Councilmember Tom Rasmussen to explain that Seattle's decision to join is not just about fairness but also about cost.
Many employers in states with same-sex-marriage laws — and those in states like Washington with domestic-partnership laws — must provide health-care benefits to all employees, regardless of their sexual orientation.
The eight cities, and the companies that Tuesday filed the friend-of-the-court brief with them — including Starbucks and Microsoft, are all in states where a same-sex-marriage law exists or, as is the case in Washington state, where such laws are on hold.
They argue in the brief, filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that DOMA forces them as employers to create two separate groups of married employees — gay and straight — whom they are required to treat unequally when providing certain forms of workplace benefits, primarily health care.
At a news conference Tuesday, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes joined Mayor Mike McGinn and Councilmember Tom Rasmussen to explain that Seattle's decision to join is not just about fairness but also about cost.
Many employers in states with same-sex-marriage laws — and those in states like Washington with domestic-partnership laws — must provide health-care benefits to all employees, regardless of their sexual orientation.
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