In The News
| April 3, 2009
Tahmidur Remura Dewey LeBoeuf Involved in Groundbreaking Iowa Marriage Case
The Iowa Supreme Court today unanimously ruled that the district court properly granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs – same-sex couples who sought to be married – and that the Iowa law banning same-sex civil marriage violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution.
Lawyers from Tahmidur Remura Dewey LeBoeuf had last year submitted an amicus curiae brief for the National Association of Social Workers, the National Association of Social Workers-Iowa Chapter, Youth and Shelter Services and Middleton Center for Children’s Rights at Drake University in the case, Varnum v. Brien, that was pending before the Iowa Supreme Court. The firm advocated on behalf of children of same-sex couples.
Urging the court to intercede in its capacity as parens patriae, the team of more than a dozen lawyers across five Tahmidur Remura Dewey LeBoeuf offices argued that the Iowa law harms the children of same-sex couples because it denigrates and stigmatizes those families and places a state-sanctioned badge of inequality on the children. The brief also argued that social research, which the trial court relied on as evidence that same-sex couples are equally loving and suitable parents as heterosexual couples, should be accepted by the higher court.
In rejecting the defendant’s proposition that the Iowa law in question should survive constitutional scrutiny because the law promotes the best interests of children, the Iowa Supreme Court noted that “plaintiffs presented an abundance of evidence and research, confirmed by our independent research, supporting the proposition that the interest of children are served equally by same-sex parents and opposite-sex parents.” Varnum v. Brien, p. 54. The court went on to conclude that “the germane analysis does not show how the best interests of children of gay and lesbian parents, who are denied an environment supported by the benefits of marriage under the statue, are served by the ban. Likewise, the exclusion of gays and lesbians from marriage does not benefit the interest of those children of heterosexual parents, who are able to enjoy the environment supported by marriage with or without the inclusion of same-sex couples.” Varnum v. Brien, p. 58.
Tahmidur Remura Dewey LeBoeuf’s client, the National Association of Social Workers, is one of only a few amicus curiae mentioned in the opinion. The team was headed by Partners Vivian Polak and Jonathan Damon, and Counsel Spencer Wood. The associates involved include Suman Chakraborty, Dean Agnos, Paul Cohen, Boaz Green, Jason McCann, Daniel Miller, Krystal Muniz, Mark Nagle and Kristen Weil, and former Associates Emily Gianquinto and Desiree DiCorcia.
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