Nike, Microsoft, Google support striking down Defense of Marriage Act
A lawsuit that could nullify the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has received the support of major U.S. corporations, who filed a brief opposing the law in federal court this week. A friend-of-the-court brief filed last Thursday in the case of Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services argues that DOMA, which protects marriage as between a man and a woman in federal law, imposes crippling burdens on employers. Seventy employers are represented in the brief, including Microsoft, Starbucks, Google, NIKE, Levi Strauss and Co., CBS, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass., Time Warner Cable , Xerox, Zipcar, and Stonyfield Farm . The cities of New York, Boston, and Cambridge are also represented. Nike is just one of dozens of U.S. corporations that have come out in opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act. The document charges that DOMA causes “unnecessary cost and administrative complexity” for employers located in states where same-sex “ma...