Dozens of US Corporations to File Amicus Brief in Opposition to Prop 8

60 major U.S. corporations and counting have signed on to a brief to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday in Hollingsworth v. Perry, taking the position that laws banning marriage equality, like California's Prop. 8, are unconstitutional under the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses.  The companies supporting our equality include Apple, Facebook, Intel, eBay, Morgan Stanley, AIG, Becton Dickinson, Cisco, Cummins, Kimpton, Levi Strauss, McGraw Hill, NCR, Nike, Office Depot, Oracle, Panasonic, Qualcomm, and Xerox. More are expected to sign by the time the brief is filed.  An excerpt:

"recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to marry is more than a constitutional issue. It is a business imperative. By singling out a group for less favorable treatment, Proposition 8 impedes businesses from achieving the market's ideal of efficient operations—particularly in recruiting, hiring, and retaining talented people who are in the best position to operate at their highest capacity. Amici are competing domestically and internationally with companies inside and outside the United States in places where all couples, regardless of whether they are of the same sex, are afforded equal access to marriage.  Potential recruits or employees are members of a same-sex couple," they "may forgo the opportunity to work in California, and prefer other states (like Iowa, New York and Massachusetts) or other nations (like Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Belgium) where they can be married and obtain equal treatment and respect under the law."

This morning, the Republican establishment filed a brief and now, corporate America.  It's beginning to feel like an avalanche.  I don't want to get my hopes up, but the Supreme Court is influenced by public opinion and reality and the reality is we won four popular votes (five if you count Iowa and I do), bringing the number of equality states to nine plus DC.  We've got GOP power brokers on our side and now scores of major corporations.  The Supremes will try to gauge the impact of their decision and will ask themselves how controversial their marriage decisions may be. We're quickly reaching the point where a decision finding all those anti-gay constitutional amendments unconstitutional wouldn't be controversial at all.  

Equality is mainstream.