Obama emphatically defends gay marriage

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday declared that gay marriage can be a right that deserves constitutional protection, supercharging a Supreme Court battle that started with California voters and is now shooting for the history books.

The administration asserted in a brief that the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees extend to same-sex couples seeking a California marriage license. The declaration was both voluntary, because the administration wasn’t required to take a position on the state’s Proposition 8, and emphatic.

“Proposition 8, by depriving same-sex couples of the right to marry, denies them the dignity, respect and stature accorded similarly situated opposite-sex couples under state law,” Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. wrote.

The brief signed by Verrilli thrusts the administration into the potentially landmark gay marriage case to be heard by the court on March 26. It potentially puts the administration on the opposite side of 37 states that expressly prohibit same-sex marriage through either a statute or a provision in the state’s constitution.

The administration indicates that the Supreme Court can focus on the “particular circumstances” found in California and seven other states that, likewise, grant domestic partnership rights, but not full marriage benefits. The designation of marriage, Verrilli noted, “confers a special validation of the relationship between two individuals and conveys a message to society that domestic partnerships or civil unions cannot match.”

California i n 2008 joined the roster of states that banned gay marriage when voters, by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin, approved the ballot measure amending the state’s constitution to say that “only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins denounced the administration’s move as a “brazen” flip-flop.