NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Connecticut Supreme Court Wednesday on behalf of the Family Research Council in support of the state’s marriage laws, which define marriage as the union of man and one woman.
“Political special interests shouldn’t trump what’s in the best interest of families and children. Who’s more important: our children or special interest groups?” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Chris Stovall. “The main reason the government licenses marriage is to encourage a mother and father to raise their children together because that’s in the best interest of the children.”
In 2004, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders filed a lawsuit demanding marriage licenses for seven same-sex couples. The following year, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a bill granting same-sex couples the same benefits as married couples, with the exception of a marriage license. The bill also contained an amendment stating that marriage under state law would be limited to one man and one woman.
In July 2006, a judge ruled that a state law providing marriage only for opposite-sex couples does not violate the state’s constitution. The full text of the 2006 ruling issued by the Superior Court of Connecticut, Judicial District of New Haven, is available at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/KerriganRuling.pdf.
A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed Wednesday by ADF on behalf of FRC in
Kerrigan v. State of Connecticut is available at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/KerriganBrief.pdf. ADF-allied attorney and local counsel Hugh D. Hughes provided assistance in filing the brief.
“Marriage is under attack because certain special interest groups are trying to reduce it to nothing more than a benefits system for emotionally attached couples,” Stovall said. “We’re all in a lot of trouble if special interests become more important than strong families.”
For more information on the battle to protect marriage, visit
www.domawatch.org.
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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