Prince Lobel was among 278 businesses, cities, and other employers, along with organizations that represent employers, advising the Supreme Court of the impact of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) upon the American employer. The brief was filed in the Supreme Court on February 27, 2013, with arguments scheduled to begin on March 27, 2013.
In United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court will review an appeals court ruling that DOMA is unconstitutional. The employers that signed the brief hold that DOMA forces an employer to put its lawfully-married employees into two categories. With most health care benefits for example, the law makes an employer withhold more from the W-2 of a lawfully-married employee if the spouse is of the same sex than if not.
Signatories to the brief do not want the federal government to hinder an employer from treating all of its married employees in the same way. Click here for more information, including a list of signatories from Massachusetts.