Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, et al. No. 10-2204, and Nancy Gill et al v. Office of Personnel Management et al., No. 10-2207

Committed to ensuring that the Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection effectively protect all people from invidious discrimination, whether on account of race, gender, national origin, religion, alienage, or sexual orientation, the Boston Bar Association signed onto an amicus brief arguing that classifications based on sexual orientation must be subjected to heightened scrutiny.

The brief, written by the ACLU and Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, concerned two cases that involved a constitutional challenge to Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) being heard before the First Circuit