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)