Connecticut Bar Association leaders have voted in favor of joining amicus briefs in support of federal benefits for same-sex couples, a decision that has drawn mixed reactions from CBA members.
The amicus brief will be first filed in the appeal of a recently decided New York case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Back in July, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant, of Connecticut, ruled in Pederson v. Office of Personnel Management that the Defense of Marriage Act violated the 14th Amendment right to equal protection. That followed the similar decision in New York in a case brought by Edie Windsor, who filed a lawsuit because she was denied benefits when her wife, Thea Spyer, died.
