Obama admin.: Marriage no longer state issue

The Obama administration abandoned its states' rights position on marriage Thursday (Feb. 28) by asking the Supreme Court to overturn California's Proposition 8, and in the process it laid the legal groundwork for legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

The friend-of-the-court brief by the Obama Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to overturn California Prop 8, the 2008 voter-approved amendment that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. The department stopped short of calling for gay marriage in all 50 states, although it urged the justices to use a form of review called "heightened scrutiny" that likely would result in gay marriage legalization from coast to coast.

The brief was released the same day that Attorney General Eric Holder, in an interview with ABC News, called gay marriage the "latest civil-rights issue."

Prop 8, the brief states, "target[s] gay and lesbian people for discriminatory treatment." Read more

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