Human Rights Watch and several partners: The New York City Bar Association; Canadian Civil Liberties Association; The National Council for Civil Liberties (“Liberty”), UK; Legal Resources Centre, South Africa; Center for Legal and Social Studies, Argentina; and La Federación Argentina de Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales y Trans, Argentina submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in the case Obergefell v. Hodges on marriage equality for same-sex couples. Richard Levine and Robert Vlasis III, attorneys for the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, were counsel for the amici curiae.
In the brief, we invite the Supreme Court to look internationally for guidance in resolving the important jurisprudential decision of whether the US Constitution grants the right for people of the same gender to marry. We selected five countries on different continents—the Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, and New Zealand—that have introduced marriage equality and reviewed similar arguments that the Supreme Court should address.
