70 of the largest Corporations are Asking The Court for Marriage Equality

adamfoxie*
Some of the nation's top companies such as Google, CBS, Starbucks and Nike have joined forces in a legal brief asking a federal court to force the federal government to recognize gay "marriage."

The friend-of-the-court brief asks the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a 2010 lower court ruling that struck down part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. In that ruling, Judge Joseph L. Tauro said the federal government must recognize gay "marriages" from such states as Massachusetts, Vermont and the other four states where it's legal.

In essence, the brief argues, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) forces the companies to discriminate and prevents their gay employees from receiving federal benefits that other married couples receive. The section of DOMA at issue defines, for federal purposes, marriage as between one man and one woman.

Also signing the Nov. 3 brief were Aetna, Levi, Microsoft, New Balance, Time Warner and Xerox as well as the cities of Boston and Cambridge, Mass., and New York City. All total, 70 businesses, cities, law firms and trade and professional firms signed the brief.

The First Circuit case is further along in the court system than the more high-profile Proposition 8 case out of California.

"Our burden arises because federal law intrudes to conflict with state law, forcing the employer to create two groups of married employees, and to treat one group differently from another," the brief states. "... DOMA forces amici to investigate the gender of the spouses of our lawfully married employees and then to single out those employees with a same-sex spouse."

The Defense of Marriage Act, the brief says, leads to higher taxes on same-sex spouses and harms morale. For instance, a gay employee who adds a spouse to a health care plan must pay taxes on that extra benefit -- something that is not required of a heterosexual employee.

Essentially, the companies are asking the federal government to help them save money. The New York Times reported in May that some companies already are making up for the tax disparity by actually paying the extra tax for gay employees.