Supporters File
Briefs in Iowa Marriage Case

At least 17 friend-of-the-court briefs will be filed this week with the Iowa supreme court on behalf of six same-sex couples who are suing the state for the right to marry. Supporters including professors, attorneys, pediatricians, and elected officials have filed the documents to bolster the couples' case.

One brief, signed by former lieutenant governors Joy Corning and Sally Pederson, asserts that the court is the proper body to address this issue, according to the gay rights group Lambda Legal. A Lambda Legal press release quotes several other signatories, including Randall Wilson, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa Foundation, who said, "For all of the groups we represent in our brief, the important question remains, When it is their day in court, will constitutional review be meaningful, or will Iowa courts simply provide lip service to principle and accept even the weakest of excuses for discrimination that our governments might concoct? Iowa's legal tradition includes many instances of insightful and courageous court decisions supporting the right of equality. In our brief, we argue that this must not change."

Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, told The Des Moines Register that the lawsuit is inappropriate because elected policy makers are being excluded from making the decision. He also said that roughly a dozen opponents of same-sex marriage have filed briefs with the court.

"Public policy has always been the province of the legislature, not the courts," he said in the article. "We definitely think the law is valid and should be binding. The courts here are trying to do through ... a single judge what Lambda couldn't get done through the proper and constitutional means."

A Des Moines Register survey published in February found that 122 out of 150 Iowa state legislators believe that marriage should remain a union between a man and a woman.

Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit with the Polk County court in December 2005 on behalf of six gay couples who were denied marriage licenses in Iowa. The legal group argued that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violates the equal protection and due process guarantees in the Iowa state constitution. In August 2007 the trial court ruled that denying marriage to the couples was unconstitutional. That ruling is on appeal to the state supreme court, which will make the final decision in the case. (The Advocate)