Rutgers Family Law Expert Files Amicus Brief in Support of Marriage Equality Cases Before Supreme Court

Carlos A. Ball, Distinguished Professor at Rutgers School of Law–Newark and a nationally-recognized scholar whose work has debunked socio-biological claims for class-based marital policies, is lead author of a friend-of-the-court brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage. The Court has scheduled oral argument for April 28, 2015 in four challenges to the constitutionality of state bans on same-sex marriage.

 

The amicus brief explores historical exclusionary policies whose purported justification was to protect the well-being of society and children and draws parallels with the “pseudoscientific assertions” of some same-sex marriage opponents. These past efforts included laws prohibiting couples of different races from marrying; restricting people with mental disabilities from marrying; and denying rights and benefits to children born outside of marriage.

 

“It is now clear,” the brief states, “that these earlier defenses of class-based marital exclusions, though they had a veneer of empiricism, were grounded in deeply held prejudices and biases. The passage of time has shown that these earlier justifications were constitutionally impermissible, morally unacceptable, and empirically indefensible.” The brief advises the Court that this problematic history should make it “highly skeptical of the effort to deny same-sex couples the opportunity to marry, purportedly to promote the well-being of society and children.”

 

Professor Ball is the author of four books on LGBT issues, including Same-Sex Marriage and Children: A Tale of History, Social Science, and Law (2014), which showed that child welfare arguments against marriage equality are not supported by history, social science or law, and co-editor of a leading casebook on sexuality and the law. He is currently editing a book of essays (After Marriage: The Future of LGBT Rights, NYU Press) and writing a book (Gay Equality and the First Amendment: A Contentious History, Harvard University Press).

 

His blogs for the Huffington Post include “What the Supreme Court’s Birth Control Case Means for Anti-Discrimination Laws,” “Why the Supreme Court Should Hear the DOMA Lawsuit,” and “LGBT Parenting Rights and the Courts.”